• Alan Smith and Tom Campbell have formed Chalker Energy Partners, Houston. Smith was most recently vice president, business development, for Ocean Energy Inc., and was previously with Xplor Energy Inc., Ryder Scott Co. and Vastar Resources. Campbell was vice president, acquisitions and divestitures, for Aroc Inc., Houston, and was previously with Texoil Inc., Huddleston & Co. and Conoco. Chalker aims to acquire and exploit oil and gas assets in east and south Texas. The company is being funded in part with Quantum Energy Partners, Houston, private equity. • Quantum Energy Partners, Mike Black and Ricky L. Smith have formed Crown Oil Partners II LP, Midland, Texas, to acquire and exploit assets in the Permian Basin. Quantum is contributing $23 million in cash, and Black and Smith have contributed properties. Including its first acquisition-assets covering more than 55,000 acres in West Texas-Crown already has interests in more than 1,000 wells producing more than 2,800 BOE per day. Previously, Black was president of Crown Oil Partners LP, a former Quantum portfolio company. Smith has been running a privately held company based in Kermit, Texas. • Navigo Energy Inc., Calgary, will divide into C1 Energy Ltd., an exploration and development company, and NAV Energy Trust, an income trust. • John Homier and Rich Bernardy have formed M1 Energy Capital Securities LLC/M1 Energy Capital LP, Houston, to advise, arrange, invest and manage financial assets in the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry for energy companies and investors. Both were previously with Deutsche Bank in Houston where they formed and managed a structured capital investment program targeting the North American upstream oil and gas sector. Previous to Deutsche Bank, Homier and Bernardy were with Banc of America Securities. • Rocky Miller, formerly vice president, business development, Wilbanks Reserve Corp., Denver, has formed a new company, Miller Oil & Gas Assets LLC, Denver. The company will focus on acquiring producing properties in the Lower 48. Miller can be reached at 303-296-9272. • Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp. is now a stand-alone, publicly held producer. It priced its initial public offering of 15 million common shares at $15.50 each, at the high end of its announced range of $14 to $16. On its first day of trading, it closed up almost 5% at $16.27, on a trading volume of 7.3 million shares, giving it a market cap of more than $244 million. The shares were sold by Alliant Energy Corp., a Madison, Wis.-based electricity and gas provider. Merrill Lynch & Co. was lead manager and book-runner and A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. was co-lead manager.