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Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. and two other energy firms announced on Friday plans to file for bankruptcy in coming weeks, joining a long list of U.S. energy companies that have succumbed to a drop in oil prices, Reuters reported. Oil and gas producers Bonanza Creek and Memorial Production Partners LP and oilfield services provider Forbes Energy Services Ltd. each said that they had a plan to reduce debt and transfer ownership to creditors. Denver-based Bonanza Creek, with oil and natural gas assets in Colorado and Arkansas, said that it would file for bankruptcy on or before Jan. 5 with a plan to eliminate $850 million in debt and provide $200 million in new equity. Memorial Production, with oil and gas assets in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and California, said that it would file for chapter 11 in coming weeks with a plan to eliminate $1.3 billion of debt. Meanwhile, Forbes Energy said it had reached a prepackaged plan with lenders and would file for bankruptcy in Houston on or before Jan. 23, 2017. As of Dec. 14, 114 oil and gas producers had filed for bankruptcy in 2016 with $57 billion in total debt, more than double the number of filings in 2015, according to Haynes & Boone. Read more. 

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