On Dec. 18, Spain’s High Court said it would investigate claims of mismanagement by Abengoa creditors’ against the former chairman and the former CEO of the engineering and energy firm struggling with serious financial problems. In its ruling, the High Court asked Felipe Benjumea, the former chairman whose father founded the company, to post a bond of 11.5 million euros ($12.5 million) to cover potential liabilities within 24 hours.
Taxpayers in Western Australia have been left to foot the bill after Jirsch Sutherland, liquidator for the Kimberley Diamond Company Pty Ltd (“KDC”), used a legal loophole to handball expensive mining leases back to the Department of Mines and Petroleum (“DMP”).
Care and maintenance costs for KDC’s Ellendale diamond mine amount to $100,000 (AUD) a month and environmental rehabilitation obligations are estimated to be $40 million (AUD). The DMP has been servicing these costs since KDC went into liquidation.
A district court judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently vacated a bankruptcy court’s decision allowing rejection of an oil and gas lease under section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code. The District Court held that a debtor’s oil and gas lease was a conveyance of an interest in real property and not an executory contract or unexpired lease that could be rejected in bankruptcy under Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code.
The recent TMA Global Annual Conference in Scottsdale Arizona gave us a great opportunity to meet with friends and colleagues old and new and swap intel and war stories! The buzz at the conference was around the oil and gas sector. Drilling down: Turmoil in Oil and Gas was the panel moderated by our very own Michael Cuda. It created immediate and ongoing comment, not just at the conference but also in the wider media. See web link from
KEY POINTS
In 1999 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its decision in Calpine Corp. v. O’Brien Environmental Energy, Inc. (In re O’Brien Environmental Energy, Inc.), 181 F.2d 527, denying Calpine Corporation’s request for the payment of a break-up fee after Calpine lost its effort to acquire the assets of O’Brien Environmental Energy out of bankruptcy.
Until recently the oil and gas sector has not been on the restructuring communities radar. However, last year global oil prices hit an all-time low, which led to a record number of insolvencies in the industry. Consequently in conjunction with Lexis Nexis we have produced the Guide to insolvency in the UK oil and gas industry.
This article originally appeared on LexisNexus.com
Produced in partnership with Susan Kelly, Caroline Castle and Ben Holland of Squire Patton Boggs.
Introduction to Common Participants in the Market
The oil and gas industry is a significant contributor to the UK economy:
References:
House of Commons Library Briefing Paper: UK offshore oil and gas industry 22 March 2016
We discussed the announcement that Bulb Energy Ltd (“Bulb”) was due to be placed into special administration in our previous blog outlining how the rules for energy supply companies work, the supplier of last resort (“SoLR”) regime and what energy supply company special administration entails.
As has been widely reported, the recent energy price volatility (coupled with the price cap limiting suppliers’ ability to pass increased costs on to consumers) has caused a number of energy supply company failures. Yesterday saw the announcement of the collapse of Bulb, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers, with it being due to be placed into special administration very shortly.
This is the first energy special administration we’ve seen. So how are the insolvency rules different for energy companies? What is a special administration, and why is this the first one?