Sanchez Energy Corp. is seeking to stifle a push by the bankrupt energy producer’s creditors who want to pursue litigation on the company’s behalf, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Sanchez said in court papers that the committee was seeking “to hijack and control” the proposed challenges to the collateral claims, and said that its methods aren’t supported by the bankruptcy code or case law. “The creditors’ committee has not met and cannot meet its burden of proving that the debtors unjustifiably refused to pursue such claims,” Sanchez Energy said in a court filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, adding that the company is actually pursuing the claims in the context of restructuring negotiations. Unsecured creditors want the right to attack collateral claims of higher-ranking creditors to four oil-and-gas leases owned by Sanchez, alleging that they could yield “hundreds of millions of dollars.” The leases are currently claimed by the Royal Bank of Canada, the collateral trustee for Sanchez’s senior secured bondholders. The junior creditors said that shortly before Sanchez filed for bankruptcy in September, the senior bondholders tried to get the oil-and-gas leases included in their collateral package by filing “corrections” documents in nine Texas counties. The leases are valued at more than $580 million based on Sanchez’s own records.
