A private equity consortium led by Apollo Global Management has agreed to acquire El Paso Corporation’s oil and gas exploration and production units in a $7.15 billion leveraged buyout that Bloomberg reports is the second-largest private equity takeover of an energy producer.

El Paso, a company founded in 1928 by Houston lawyer Paul Kayser, announced late Friday that it had reached an agreement to sell the businesses to a group composed of Apollo, Access Industries, and Riverstone Holdings.