Pickens's BP Capital Energy Fund Fell 14% This Year

Pickens's BP Capital Energy Fund Fell 14% This Year
By Margot Habiby
March 11 (Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor Boone Pickens's BP Capital Energy Equity Fund fell 14 percent in the first two months of this year, amid soaring prices for natural gas and crude oil.

BP Capital spokesman Jay Rosser, who said in an e-mail that the fund fell, declined to comment on the hedge fund's specific market positions and holdings.

About 90 percent of the Energy Equity Fund's assets are in energy-company stocks, according to Bloomberg data. Natural gas futures jumped 25 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange through February, as crude oil climbed 6.1 percent.

BP Capital's biggest equity holdings as of the end of last year were in Suncor Energy Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., according to a regulatory filing. Suncor's shares lost 16 percent through February, and Exxon Mobil dropped 7.1 percent. Occidental rose 0.5 percent.

Pickens, the founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, told CNBC on Feb. 21 that he was short on both crude oil and natural gas. He didn't provide additional information on his positions. A short is a bet that prices will decline.

``Oil is going to back off here in the second quarter,'' Pickens said in the CNBC interview last month. ``It'll be back above $100 in the second half.''