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Oil producer Swift Energy Co. said today that it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, less than four months after filing for creditor protection, Reuters reported. Swift filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 31, joining about 40 other energy companies that entered bankruptcy in 2015 as oil prices plunged. The company entered bankruptcy with an agreement with more than 60 percent of the holders of its unsecured bonds. Swift had said that it planned to exchange those bonds for 96 percent of its stock when it exited bankruptcy. Its shareholders were to get 4 percent of its stock. The company said it has completed its financial reorganization, which was confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on March 31. Read more. 

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Bankruptcy Judge Brendan L. Shannon signed off on New Gulf Resources LLC's restructuring plan, allowing the troubled energy company to wipe roughly $590 million of debt from its balance sheet and to move closer to exiting chapter 11 protection, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. The reorganization plan will allow New Gulf, which sought chapter 11 protection late last year, to convert about $590 million in secured and unsecured bonds into equity. New Gulf will issue $135.25 million in new first-lien bonds to its creditors, and some of the new debt will be used to pay down the company's $75 million bankruptcy loan. That loan, from a group of New Gulf's second-lien bondholders, was used to fund the costs of the restructuring and to repay $38 million owed to senior lender MidFirst Bank. The chapter 11 plan will leave New Gulf in the hands of its two bondholder groups. Second-lien bondholders, owed $365 million in principal, will receive about 87.5 percent of New Gulf's new equity and the holders of subordinated paid-in-kind bonds, owed $162 million, will take a roughly 12.5 percent stake. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Get a better understanding of what happens when an oil, gas or other natural resources company goes bankrupt. Order your copy of ABI’s revised and expanded When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy, Second Edition. 

Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi gave the green light to Paragon Offshore PLC’s creditors to vote on its restructuring plan, which would wipe more than $1 billion in existing debt from its balance sheet, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Sontchi on Monday signed off on an outline of Paragon’s restructuring plan, court papers show, paving the way for creditors to begin casting their votes. In addition to lowering the company’s debt load, Paragon will also see a $60 million reduction in annual cash interest expense from its balance sheet. Creditors eligible to vote on the plan will have until May 31 to submit ballots, and Judge Sontchi will consider approving the plan itself at a hearing set for June 3.