Reliance Industries Ltd., one of the largest companies in India, and Apollo Global Management LLC, a New York-based private equity firm, are looking to buy El Paso Corporation’s (NYSE: EP) oil and gas exploration and production business unit. As ranked by assets, El Paso is the 11^th largest US oil and gas producer, according to the OGJ150 Quarterly Report.

Northstar Offshore Energy Partners LLC (NOEP) – a portfolio company of Natural Gas Partners (NGP) – said Dec. 29 that it has sold substantially all of its asset holdings to ANKOR E&P Holdings Corporation, STX Energy E&P Offshore Management LLC, and SCL Resources LLC for $201 million.

TPG Capital has partnered with Dan Allen Hughes Jr. and Thomas M. Hart III to form a new venture, Maverick American Natural Gas, to acquire and operate conventional natural gas producing properties in North America.

Houston-based private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners has formed Bluestem Energy with industry veteran Jack Hightower as its chairman, president, and CEO.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity and Sterling Energy Co. have entered into a strategic partnership whereby Morgan Stanley Private Equity has made a majority equity investment in a newly formed company called Sterling Investment Holdings LLC to support the growth of Sterling Energy’s midstream business in Colorado and North Dakota.

Caiman Energy LLC, an EnCap Flatrock Midstream portfolio company, has completed the second of two recent financings adding more than $1 billion to help fund its planned expansion of midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale.

Pine Brook, a New York-based private equity firm that focuses on the energy and financial services industries, has named Richard Aube as a managing director.

Driven by a small number of funds that held large closes, US and European private equity fund-raising rebounded in 2011.