Buccaneer Energy Ltd. wants more time to work on its reorganization plan.
The Australian independent recently asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas for a 30-day extension to its exclusivity period for filing the plan.
The extension would give Buccaneer until Oct. 28 to file the plan with the court and until Dec. 27 to solicit the plan to its creditors for a vote. Without an extension, Buccaneer would still be able to propose a plan but would have to compete with other proposals.
The bankruptcy code gives a debtor an exclusive period of time to propose a reorganization plan to its creditors and solicit the plan for a vote -- usually 120 days for the former and 180 days for the latter from the time of the initial petition for bankruptcy.
The deadline for Buccaneer to file the plan was Sept. 28.
Buccaneer and its largest unsecured creditors reached a settlement in late August that resolved some outstanding issues around the plan. The court approved the settlement.
"While significant progress has been made towards a consensual chapter 11 plan, the debtors submit that a brief extension of the exclusivity period is necessary in order for them to broker a path to maximize value for all of their stakeholders without the disruption that is likely to be caused by the filing of competing plans by non-debtor parties," William R. Greendyke, a Buccaneer attorney, told the court in a Sept. 26 filing.
This story originally appeared in Petroleum News and has been republished with permission.