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When Samson Resources Corp filed this year's biggest energy-related bankruptcy in September, the oil and gas company said that it had a deal to emerge from chapter 11 protection by year-end. Just a few weeks later, plunging gas prices had left the deal in tatters, Reuters reported today. Samson joins about a half dozen troubled energy producers that have sought court protection from creditors this year and discovered asset values have evaporated or that a restructuring plan has unraveled as commodity prices plunge. Bankers, lawyers and advisers involved in the cases blame the steep drop in energy prices and the industry's huge need for constant, capital-intensive drilling and exploring to sustain production. In the past 16 months, the price of oil has sunk to around $40 per barrel from about $100, ending years of elevated crude prices that fueled oil companies' debt-financed expansion. Read more. 

For more on oil and gas bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. 

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. has lined up $80 million worth of financing to help it get out of a bankruptcy after its messy breakup with Apple Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported today. The equipment manufacturer was enlisted to supply sapphire screen material for Apple on a large scale, but the smartphone maker spurned GT’s offering, leaving it mired in debt. GT Advanced’s stint in chapter 11 protection began in October 2014, amid a fight with Apple that ended in a settlement. Since then, the company has struggled to return to its mission as a maker of industrial equipment and to find a way out of bankruptcy. The company’s existing lenders are offering bankruptcy-exit financing including $60 million in new debt and $20 million in preferred stock. The financing carries a 5 percent fee and other costs and calls for GT to file a chapter 11 exit plan by Dec. 21. The plan must be implemented in the first quarter of 2016.

The bankrupt operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CEC) has appealed a ruling that would enforce payments of nearly $364 million in pension liabilities, Reuters reported on Friday. Caesars Entertainment Operating Corp. (CEOC) had asked the bankruptcy court to shield its parent from liability demands by the National Retirement Fund, a pension fund that covers thousands of employees across five affiliated Caesars companies. Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar denied that request earlier this month, saying that CEOC's bankruptcy does not protect its parent. The dispute is one of many Caesars faces in its $18 billion chapter 11 case and it is not the first time that Judge Goldgar has denied a request to protect its parent from creditors' claims. In July, Judge Goldgar decided to allow lawsuits from hedge fund creditors against the parent to proceed. Caesars appealed the ruling but it was later upheld by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman. Caesars' lawyers have argued that claims against CEC could jeopardize the parent's ability to contribute cash to a reorganization plan to pull the casino group out of bankruptcy.

Bankrupt Walter Energy Inc. received court approval yesterday to auction its coal assets as part of a proposal to emerge from a bankruptcy that has faced fierce opposition from unions and retirees in its home state of Alabama, Reuters reported yesterday. Walter Energy is one of four debt-laden U.S. coal producers that have sought chapter 11 protection this year as plummeting commodity prices, weak demand and increased environmental regulation hurt operations. The company has an offer from senior lenders for assets set to go on the auction block, including its mines in Alabama — the heart of its business — in exchange for cancelling $1.25 billion of its debt. The lenders have also offered $5.4 million in cash.

Texas's biggest power company, Energy Future Holdings Corp., has reached a settlement with the last group of creditors opposed to its chapter 11 plan, increasing the likelihood the plan will be confirmed, Reuters reported yesterday. The company said in court filings on Monday that it had reached settlements with the official creditors committee of Energy Future Holdings, as well as a representative for some junior bondholders. The plan centers around the sale of its Oncor power distribution business, the biggest power distributor in Texas, to a group led by Hunt Consolidated of Texas. That deal has been valued at $19 billion. The committee had opposed the structure of the deal, which they said would allow Hunt to walk away if the deal failed to clear regulatory hurdles. Under the settlement, the committee and bondholders agreed to drop their opposition to Energy Future's plan and the Hunt deal. In return, they would receive some of the interest that has accrued during the bankruptcy.

Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) and a group of its lenders are seeking to block a creditor group from bringing more lawsuits in the casino company’s litigation-heavy bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. CEOC and the senior lenders that have already committed their support for the company’s restructuring filed papers on Friday opposing the official committee of unsecured creditors’ request to bring lawsuits — which the committee says CEOC can’t or won’t bring before the court. In their objections, CEOC and the lenders pointed to the progress they say the company has made in formulating its restructuring plan, as well as a settlement of various legal claims at the heart of the plan.