• Plano, Texas-based E&P company Ascent Energy Inc. has filed for an IPO for proceeds of up to $200 million on the Nasdaq. The number of shares and the price range have not been determined yet. Lehman Brothers and Jefferies & Co. are joint book-runners. Ascent is gas-focused and has properties in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. It is also exploring the Appalachia. The company controls proved reserves of about 42 billion cu. ft. of gas and 10 million bbl. of oil, Hoover's reports. • Houston-based Stallion Oilfield Services Inc. has filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq for proceeds of $287.5 million. The number of shares and price range have not been determined yet. Proceeds will pay debt and be used for general corporate purposes, including potential acquisitions. Lead underwriters include Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Investment Bank. Stallion provides well-site support services and construction and logistics services to E&P companies and drilling contractors. • Penn Virginia Corp., Radnor, Pa., (NYSE: PVA) reports that its subsidiary, Penn Virginia GP Holdings LP, has filed for an IPO of 6 million common units on the New York Stock Exchange. The price range has not been determined yet. The proposed ticker is PVG. PVG was recently formed by Penn Virginia to own the general partner interest, all of the incentive distribution rights, 7.5 million common units and 7.6 million subordinated units in Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (NYSE: PVR). Proceeds will be used by PVG to purchase newly issued Class B common units from PVR, and PVR expects to use the proceeds to pay debt. Lehman Brothers and UBS Investment Bank are joint book-running managers for the offering. • Houston-based Universal Compression Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UCO) has filed for an IPO of 5.5 million partnership units for Universal Compression Partners LP on the Nasdaq as UCLP. The share price has not been determined yet. Lehman Brothers Inc. and Merrill Lynch are lead underwriters. Assuming an offering price of $20 per unit, UCH expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $99.4 million. Proceeds will be used to pay debt. UCH provides natural gas contract compression services throughout the U.S. • Addison, Texas-based Dresser Inc. has withdrawn its filing for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange for proceeds of $575 million due to its need to restate 2004 annual and quarterly financial statements and first-, second- and third-quarter 2005 financial statements. The company is evaluating the need to restate periods prior to 2004. • Cork Exploration Inc., Calgary, (Toronto: CRK) has closed its C$35-million IPO of 8.75 million common shares at C$4 each for proceeds of about C$33 million. Proceeds will be used to pay debt and fund the company's 2006 capital program. Tristone Capital Inc. was lead underwriter. FirstEnergy Capital Corp., GMP Securities LP and CIBC World Markets were also underwriters. Cork focuses on E&P activities in Alberta. Since inception in February 2005, Cork has grown its production through farm-in arrangements, government land sales and drilling to 702 BOE per day with an additional estimated 1,000 per day awaiting completion and tie-in. As of April, Cork's estimated proved-plus-probable reserves totaled 5.2 million BOE at an average finding cost of approximately C$11.50 per BOE. Philip Collins, president and chief executive, says, "With a strong land position and more than 90% exploratory well success on 15 gross wells drilled to-date in 2006, this offering provides Cork with capital to assist in meeting our drilling objectives. We anticipate drilling an additional 30 gross wells by the end of the year." • Russian oil firm Rosneft raised $10.4 billion in an IPO of 1.38 billion shares and global depositary receipts at $7.55 each in July, near the top of the expected price range, Reuters reports. BP Plc (NYSE: BP) bought $1 billion worth of shares, or 10% of the offering, and China National Petroleum Corp. and Petronas have reportedly also placed large bids for shares, according to Reuters. Proceeds will be used to pay off a loan of $7.5 billion that was taken in September 2005 to buy a 10.74% stake in Gazprom and to pay debt, according to Reuters. ABN Amro, Dresdner Kleinwort, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley managed the IPO. The shares are being listed on Russia's RTS exchange and the Micex exchange as ROSN, Reuters reports. Yukos is seeking an interim injunction to restrain the London Stock Exchange from listing Rosneft's shares. • Another large investor is pressing The Houston Exploration Co., Houston, (NYSE: THX) to sell. Wexford Capital LLC, Greenwich, Conn., has sent a letter to the THX board asking it to have a "fair, open and thorough auction process to sell the company and maximize shareholder value." Wexford is an investment advisor that manages a series of investment funds. It has more than 400,000 shares of THX stock, or a 1.5% interest in the company. THX has retained Lehman Brothers to advise it on strategy. • Carin Dehne Kiley has joined Calyon Securities USA in New York as the lead E&P analyst, replacing analyst Brad Beago, who left the firm's Houston office a few months ago to join a hedge fund. She has initiated coverage of five E&P names, with Buy ratings on Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) and Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA). (The rating is still Buy post-Anadarko's acquisition news.) She has an Add recommendation on Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK), Cimarex Energy (NYSE: XEC) and Newfield Exploration (NYSE: NFX). Kiley previously was an analyst on the award-winning team at Banc of America Securities. • EnCap Investments LP, Houston and Dallas, reports that Murphy Markham has joined the Dallas office as managing director. Markham was senior vice president and head of J.P. Morgan Chase's oil and gas finance group in Dallas. Also, Brent Bechtol, Jason DeLorenzo, Sean Smith and Doug Swanson have been named managing directors and Mark Welsh has been named assistant vice president. Welsh worked in the private-equity business with Blackstone and the Adams Group. Separately, the firm reports that its Fund V is 96% committed and 57% funded. Fund VI was activated earlier this month. If gas prices stay firm into the winter heating season, the firm expects several Fund IV and Fund V investments (E&P firms) will be monetized in late 2006/early 2007. • Boutique investment bank Dahlman Rose & Co. LLC, New York, has formed a leveraged finance group to compliment the firm's equity business. The group, headed by managing director Neal Thomas, will be involved in all aspects of below-investment-grade fixed income and private placements. Previously, Thomas was a managing director at Guggenheim Capital Markets. The group will initially focus on the energy space and expand into all industries and sectors, providing a range of research, sales, trading and capital-markets services. The group will look at opportunities in the high-yield, mezzanine, private-equity, financial sponsor and distressed universe. Management includes Mario Monello, senior capital markets advisor; Paul Lopez, managing director, capital markets; David Kranich, senior vice president, trading; Susan DeRoberts, vice president, sales; and Joseph McGrath, vice president, research. Monello was a managing partner at Lehman Brothers; Lopez was a high-yield research analyst at CIBC World Markets; Kranich was with BB&T Capital Markets, high yield and distressed trading; DeRoberts was a trader at Harbert Management and McGrath was with Imperial Capital and Guggenheim Capital Markets. Jeffrey T. Silverman has been named managing director in the leveraged finance group. Previously, he was a vice president at DLJ and Credit Suisse First Boston. • Centennial Bank Holdings Inc., Denver, (Nasdaq: CBHI) reports that Charles Searle has joined its subsidiary, Guaranty Bank and Trust Co., as executive vice president of commercial and energy banking. He has more than 35 years of commercial and corporate banking experience in the Denver metropolitan area, including 27 years in the energy sector. Gail Nofsinger has been named a vice president and senior energy lender. She most recently was with GE Energy Financial Services in Denver. • Private-equity firm First Reserve Corp., Greenwich, Conn., has named Alan G. Schwartz managing director. Schwartz joins First Reserve from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's energy practice. • Denver-based Rivington Capital Advisors LLC has formed Rivington Financial Services LLC to provide accounting and consulting services to small and midcap energy companies. Dan R. Taylor has joined the company as president of RFS and he will be joined by Timothy L. McLemore, chief operating officer, Sally Pieper, vice president, and Jose Garduno, vice president. Taylor was with Medicine Bow Energy Corp. as vice president, accounting, until the firm was sold to El Paso (NYSE: EP) in August 2005. • Houston-based Growth Capital Partners LP has closed Southwest Mezzanine Investments II LP at more than $65 million. Jim Forrester, Jim Rebello and Drew Sudduth will manage the fund. Investors include Amegy Holding Delaware Inc., Cuna Mutual Life Insurance Co., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., family offices and high-net worth individuals. SM II intends to target $2- to $5 million subordinated debt investments in middle-market companies. The fund will consider companies with competitive advantages, enterprise values in excess of $10 million and a history of profitable operations. • Haddington Ventures LLC, Houston, has closed a new private-equity fund, Haddington Energy Partners III LP, with committed capital of $182 million to be used for investments in the North American midstream energy industry. Fund III is seeking equity investment opportunities developed by experienced management teams in the $20- to $50-million range with a total enterprise value of $100- to $200 million. The fund will also consider initial investments as low as $2- to $5 million, depending upon growth potential and follow-on investment opportunities. • E. Marc Cuenod Jr. has been named head of Wells Fargo Energy Group's Houston energy division, which lends capital to the middle-market energy sector, under Kyle Hranicky, senior vice president and group head for the energy group. Cuenod has been a senior relationship manager in the Wells Fargo Energy Group since 2004, managing a portfolio of more than $400 million in commitments. Prior to 2004, he was assistant treasurer of corporate finance for Ocean Energy Inc., assistant treasurer for Coastal Corp., senior vice president, gas origination, for El Paso Merchant Energy, and in banking for Mellon Bank and Continental Illinois National Bank And Trust Co. • Frank K. Stowers has been named president of the Midland-Odessa market for Citibank Texas, which provides commercial capital to middle market oil and gas producers. He was senior vice president, based in Midland, for Citibank Texas. • Harris Nesbitt and BMO Nesbitt Burns, the U.S. and Canadian investment-banking units of BMO Financial Group, Chicago, (NYSE; Toronto: BMO) will be combined under a single entity and have been renamed BMO Capital Markets. The new brand encompasses all the firms' banking capabilities, including debt and equity underwriting, corporate lending and other banking services. Harris Nesbitt will remain the brand name for the U.S. retail, commercial and private banking operations. • Geoff Davis has joined E&P asset-marketing advisory firm Richardson Barr & Co., Houston, as a vice president. He previously was with Tristone Capital Inc. and Petroleum Place Energy Advisors. • Tristone Capital Inc., Calgary, has named Chris Simon and Miles Redfield managing directors, A&D, in Houston. They were formerly vice presidents, A&D, for Tristone. • Tatneft, Almetyevsk, Russia, (NYSE: TNT, London: ATAD) plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and terminate registration of its shares with the SEC to concentrate trading outside of Russia on the London Stock Exchange, due to increased SEC-related costs. • Oil and gas drilling contractor GlobalSantaFe Corp. (NYSE: GSF) reports that its worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for May was 118.5, up 71.2% from one year ago. It is now the highest in the 25-year SCORE's history. • CanArgo Energy Corp., St. Peter Port, British Isles, (Amex: CNR) reports that its subsidiary, Tethys Petroleum Investments Ltd., plans to list on London's AIM exchange to raise funds for its development and exploration activities in Kazakhstan. Closing is expected this fall. ODL Securities Ltd. is the principal broker for Tethys. Proceeds will be used to develop the Kyzyloi gas field and exploration and development in the Akkulka and Greater Akkulka areas, as well as potential new acquisitions in Kazakhstan and related areas. CanArgo is an independent E&P company with oil and gas operations in Georgia and Kazakhstan.