Majority

Morgan Stanley Private Equity has taken a majority stake in newly formed Sterling Investment Holdings LLC, the firm and Sterling Energy Co. said Thursday. The move is intended to support growth of Sterling Energy’s midstream business in Colorado and North Dakota.

Prices fell further at a large majority of locations Friday as it appeared that a tropical storm heading toward Texas would spare most offshore production and heat forecasts weren’t strong enough to avert market softness. Even the lack of a weekend industrial load loss in Friday’s trading was unable to support pricing.

Prices were in modest rally mode at a large majority of points Wednesday as heat levels began to trend upward again in key northern market areas and what had previously appeared to be a benign tropical wave south of Cuba was designated as Tropical Storm Don in the afternoon as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. has offered to buy shale patch pioneer Petrohawk Energy Corp. for $12.1 billion in a deal that would more than double unit BHP Billiton Petroleum’s resource base and grow proved reserves by about 30%, it said. Petrohawk shares took flight on the news as investors also delivered uplift to a flock of the company’s peers.

Voters are nearly evenly split about the New York Department of Conservation’s (DEC) proposed recommendations to allow hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in a portion of the state’s Marcellus Shale, with 45% in support of drilling and 43% opposed, according to a poll of registered voters released on Thursday by the Siena College Research Institute.

Prices continued to fall at a large majority of points Friday despite a few slight reversals of cooling trends. The overall diminution of air conditioning load from earlier in the week was still largely in place, and it was abetted by the previous day’s 8.4-cent decline by August futures following a bearish storage report and the usual drop of industrial load during a weekend in pushing cash numbers lower.

Prospects of greater heat levels returning this week had prices rebounding at a large majority of trading locations Monday. The previous Friday’s rise of 3.6 cents by prompt-month futures and the return of industrial load from its usual weekend decline were additional minor bullish factors.

There did not seem to be a lot of weather support except in much of the torrid desert Southwest, but mostly small price increases continued at a majority of points for a second day Wednesday. The cash market did have some positive guidance from the previous day’s 7.1-cent increase by prompt-month futures.

While the majority of U.S. primary energy production comes from fossil fuel resources, the bulk of the energy tax breaks have gone to support renewable fuels in the past two years, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).