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Oil and gas producer Magnum Hunter Resources Corp and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday to carry out a debt-cutting plan as a prolonged slump in oil prices has depleted the company's cash, Reuters reported. The company entered into a restructuring agreement that will convert its funded debt into equity, substantially reducing its more than $1 billion in debt, according to a company statement. To fund its operations during its bankruptcy, the company's lenders agreed to provide up to $200 million in financing, which will also convert into equity when Magnum Hunter emerges from bankruptcy. Magnum Hunter ranks among the biggest energy producers to file for bankruptcy this year, joining Samson Resources Corp., Sabine Oil & Gas Corp., Quicksilver Resources Inc and Energy & Exploration Partners Inc.

Cubic Energy Inc., the latest Texas oil company brought down by falling oil prices, filed for bankruptcy protection after reaching a deal with its lenders to hand over control of the company, MarketWatch.com reported yesterday. The Dallas-based Cubic, which drills for oil and natural gas in Texas and Louisiana, said that it has agreed to cede control of the company to Wells Fargo Energy Capital and its secured bondholders, including an affiliate of Anchorage Capital Group. The company, which listed assets of $120.7 million and debts of $114.2 million in its bankruptcy petition, filed for chapter 11 with a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan having already secured the votes to secure passage of its debt-for-equity swap. Read more.

For further analysis and insight into oil and energy company bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. 

Energy & Exploration Partners Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday, following several other oil and gas drillers into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company’s bankruptcy petition listed debt of $1 billion to $10 billion and assets of $500 million to $1 billion. The Fort Worth, Texas oil and gas driller’s federal bankruptcy filings convert an involuntary bankruptcy petition filed Nov. 25 by creditors Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations Inc., Cactus Pipe & Supply and Schlumberger Technology Corp. to a voluntary petition, according to court papers. In addition, to fund its operations during the restructuring process, Energy and Exploration said that it secured commitments for up to $135 million of new debtor-in-possession financing from a group of its senior lenders.

For futther analysis of oil and gas bankruptcy proceedings, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI's When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth, Minn., filed for bankruptcy Monday after being hit with an $8.4 million verdict in a clergy sex abuse case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The diocese, which spans 10 counties in northeastern Minnesota, filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Duluth, court papers show. Last month, a jury awarded $8.4 million to a man who says he was sexually abused in the late 1970s by a priest serving in the Diocese of Duluth. The diocese, which has said that it is considering an appeal, says that it knew nothing about the abuse and couldn't have prevented it. The Diocese of Duluth is being held responsible for $4.8 million of the $8.4 million judgment, Susan Gaertner, a lawyer for the diocese. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Diocesan and religious order bankruptcies were the topic of discussion at a session at last week’s Winter Leadership Conference. Click here to access the meeting materials from that session. 

Cruise industry newcomer Haimark Line has filed for bankruptcy just months after beginning operations, USA Today reported today. "Any disruptions in service will be announced if and when they occur during this period of reorganization," the line said in the statement. Initially offering voyages along the Eastern USA and into the Great Lakes, Haimark had a troubled start this summer. It's only ship, the 210-passenger Saint Laurent, crashed into a lock while navigating the St. Lawrence Seaway just weeks after its May 30 debut. In its statement, Haimark blamed the accident for the bankruptcy filing, citing insurance issues that remain unresolved. The line charters the Saint Laurent from Clipper Cruises, which owns the vessel.

Fertilizer company BioNitrogen Holdings Corp. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in Florida, where it has been working toward building plants, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A so-called clean-tech company, BioNitrogen was set up to produce fertilizer out of agricultural waste instead of using subterranean natural gas. The company estimated debt of $3.5 million and assets worth from $1 million to $10 million, in papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. In October, BioNitrogen was hit with a default judgment in favor of Annon Consulting Inc., a Canadian company that lent it $845,000 at 30 percent interest in December 2013. The debt to Annon is listed at $1.4 million in BioNitrogen’s bankruptcy court papers.

Newspaper publisher Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, on Sunday filed for bankruptcy-court protection with a plan to sell the beleaguered company to a local investment group led by the company's publisher, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Richard E. Mirman, a former casino executive and Freedom's chief executive, placed the newspaper publisher into chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, Calif. Mirman and Orange County developer Mike Harrah, intend to buy the publisher's assets out of bankruptcy, subject to higher bids at a court-supervised auction. In a letter to employees, Mirman said Freedom was on pace to post a profit this year, but said accumulated losses under the company's previous leadership have left the publisher in too deep of a hole.

Cardiac Science Corp., a manufacturer of automatic heart defibrillators, filed for chapter 11 protection to sell its business after a cash crunch threatened its ability to pay employees and vendors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Wisconsin-based company headed to court yesterday to request immediate access to $4.98 million of the $9 million bankruptcy loan it negotiated with its current lender, a fund associated with Los Angeles-based Aurora Capital Group. Cardiac ultimately would like to execute an exchange deal with Aurora whereby the fund would repay $6.5 million in senior debt owed to HDFC Bank, and forgive the $9 million bankruptcy loan plus another $65 million owed to Aurora in exchange for ownership of the company. Cardiac has requested permission to test that offer during an auction on Dec. 17.

Metal-parts manufacturer LB Steel LLC filed for bankruptcy, hit with a nearly $30 million judgment in a legal battle over a Chicago airport project that played out during an industry-wide downturn, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Officials who put LB Steel into bankruptcy protection on Sunday said that they plan to look for buyers for the 310-worker company, which operates out of a 450,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in the Chicago suburb of Harvey. Last week, a judge ruled that LB Steel owes $27.5 million to Walsh Construction Co. in a dispute over LB Steel's work on a canopy and curtain wall that was built at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Chicago officials who hired Walsh in 2003 to handle the project later "identified defects in the canopy and curtain wall," according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago.

The Ellen Shaw de Paredes Breast Cancer Foundation has filed a voluntary petition for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation as it shifts its focus primarily to breast cancer early detection and screening, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported today. The foundation board is in the process of creating a new nonprofit entity, called Reach Out For Life. The foundation was created in 2005 by Dr. Ellen Shaw de Paredes, a diagnostic radiologist who died in August 2014. The petition, filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, listed estimated assets and liabilities of between $100,001 and $500,000, court documents show. Paredes was a passionate advocate of early detection of breast cancer, and she started her medical practice, the Ellen Shaw de Paredes Institute for Women’s Imaging, to provide that care. The institute is a separate business entity from the foundation and is not affected by nor part of the bankruptcy filing.