Just nine months after a federal bankruptcy court approved its reorganization plan, Venoco LLC re-entered chapter 11 proceedings yesterday, the Pacific Coast Business Times reported. Venoco said that under its plan for bankruptcy reorganization, Platform Holly and the South Elwood Oil Field are being transferred back to the state of California which will oversee the winding down of operations. Platform Holly has been idled since the May 2015 rupture of a Plains All American pipeline near Refugio Beach that spilled an estimated 142,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean. Pipeline closures triggered Venoco’s initial filing on July 14, 2016 and Venoco’s court-approved restructuring plan reduced an estimated $1 billion in debt. But the Plains pipelines remain shut indefinitely and in its statement on April 17, Venoco said that it would now ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to approve a plan for its assets to be “sold or wound down.”
