• Goldman Sachs & Co. has established Goldman Sachs E&P Capital, Houston, to provide private energy capital. Kurt A. Talbot will head the new effort, which will focus on providing various forms of asset-backed capital to E&P companies. Talbot was with Trust Company of the West, most recently as manager of the Los Angeles-based company's Houston energy office. He is joined by John Howie, vice president, who was most recently with EnCap Investments LLC, and before that, with Range Resources' and Tenneco Ventures' capital-provider businesses. The new Goldman unit will provide junior and senior loans, mezzanine debt, production payments and preferred equity through investments of $20- to $50-million. It also expects to syndicate larger transactions. • The Laredo National Bank has launched a new Houston-based energy practice, LNB Energy Advisors, headed by Gary K. Wright, president, and Delbert J. Pierson, executive vice president, to provide bank credit facilities and strategic advice to small and midsize oil and gas producers. Wright was with Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank and Texas Commerce Bank and Chevron Oil Co. Pierson was acquisition manager for Mission Resources Corp. and was previously with other independents, Exxon Co. USA and Texas Commerce Bank. • Texas Capital Bank, Dallas, is opening a commercial banking center in Houston, including Mike Black as senior vice president for energy. Black was most recently a vice president with Duke Capital Partners. • Shareholders of Aviva Petroleum Inc., Dallas, have voted to take the company private. Aviva's properties are mainly in Colombia and offshore U.S. • Greka Energy Corp., New York, has become a private company as the result of the buyout by Alexi Corp., a subsidiary of Alexi Holdings Ltd. that was incorporated by Greka chairman, chief executive officer and president Randeep S. Grewal. Shares were acquired for $6.25 each. • Exco Resources Inc., Dallas, has become a private company as the result of a buyout by Exco Holdings Inc., a company formed by chairman and chief executive officer Douglas Miller, for $18 a share.