The oil price collapse put Swift Energy Co. into bankruptcy in the last hours of 2015, with a deal to sell some assets and an agreement with some bondholders, but no guarantees either will be enough to see the company through tough times, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The Dec. 31 filing capped months of struggles to address a debt load that tops $1.2 billion in a climate that has lenders retreating from energy companies. It came as the grace period expired on a missed Dec. 1 interest payment with bondholders that had been engaged in talks with Swift, one of dozens of oil industry players trying to survive the oil price crush. Just before the bankruptcy filing, Swift reached a deal to sell some of its Louisiana holdings to Texegy LLC at a "favorable price," but the money won't be enough to get the company through, court papers say. As for the bankruptcy turnaround plan, it has backing from a committee representing holders of about half its bond debt, court papers say. Those papers reveal Swift and the bondholders still have to come to terms on how to pay off $330 million in top-ranking bank debt, court papers say. Read more.
For background on oil and gas company bankruptcy proceedings, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy.
