Vantage Drilling won confirmation yesterday of a chapter 11 plan that will chop its debt load and set the oil-and-gas drilling company up to compete in an increasingly rough market, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon approved Vantage's balance-sheet reshaping yesterday at a hearing. The bankruptcy restructuring moved swiftly, the judge said, but the speed was justified by the "absolute tumult" in the oil and gas industry. Vantage owns three state-of-the-art ships and four rigs designed to drill in ultradeep ocean waters. The company is trimming its debt load to survive the drop in oil and gas prices, as well as to improve its chances of staying busy in a market in which work is hard to find. The company filed for protection in December, claiming support from most of its lenders for the chapter 11 plan, which will reduce secured debt of $2.6 billion to less than $1 billion, or even lower, depending on what investors do with new convertible notes issued under the plan. Read more. (Subscription required.)
For further analysis of oil and gas bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy.