Rocked by the fall in oil and gas prices, some energy-focused private-equity funds are pleading with their investors for more time and money, the Wall Street Journal reported today. EnerVest Ltd., a Houston-based investment firm that says that it operates more U.S. oil and gas wells than any other company, is asking investors in two of its funds to put up hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the troubled funds or risk losing the billions they have already invested. First Reserve Corp., meanwhile, is negotiating with investors to extend the life of a $7.8 billion fund from 2006 to give it time for oil prices to rebound. The fund has lost more than a third of its original value, and investors are pushing First Reserve for a break on the management fees it charges them.
