Houston’s Cobalt International Energy Inc. has moved a step closer to extricating itself from an Angolan oil venture, winning bankruptcy court approval of a $500 million settlement with Angola’s state-controlled energy group Sonangol, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Cobalt’s history with Angola has been a troubled one, sparking lawsuits and investigations, and featuring a failed effort to sell the company’s Angolan assets to Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola — Empresa Pública, or Sonangol, for $1.75 billion. The order signed by Judge Marvin Isgur ends the fighting and transfers the assets to Sonangol, as long as $500 million arrives in bank accounts in the U.S. The money needs to arrive in Cobalt’s U.S. bank accounts, or there is no settlement, according to the order signed by Judge Isgur at the hearing in a Houston bankruptcy court. While Cobalt’s creditors await the Sonangol cash, they are looking for buyers for assets in the Gulf of Mexico, and trying to hammer out agreements that will ease it to confirmation of a chapter 11 plan by the end of March. Judge Isgur also approved rules for bidding on Cobalt, setting a March 6 auction.
