(Reuters) - Luminus Management LLC, a hedge fund focused on energy and power sectors, has sold almost all the assets in its largest fund to return money to investors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The company had begun liquidating holdings in its Energy Partners fund a year ago, a move prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. (bit.ly/3eIdmgQ) The company did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The liquidation underscores how hedge funds that had heavily invested in the oil industry are still reeling from the pandemic-driven slump in crude prices early last year, even though prices have rebounded since then. Offshore oil driller Valaris, one of the companies in the New York-based hedge fund’s portfolio, filed for a bankruptcy in 2020, as a plunge in U.S. crude prices and a multibillion-dollar debt weighed on its balance sheet. Assets under management for the firm dropped to $1.15 billion from $2.1 billion in March last year, the report said. Smaller investments from the hedge fund, including those in the private markets, are yet to be liquidated and sales will likely extend into 2022, WSJ said.