Energy Partners Reorganization Plan Takes Effect

ALAN SAYRE

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Independent petroleum producer Energy Partners Ltd. expects to begin trading 40 million shares of new common stock on the New York Stock Exchange following implementation of a financial reorganization plan.

EPL emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Monday with a $70 million credit account consisting of a $25 million loan and a three-year revolving credit account of $45 million to provide additional liquidity.

Pre-bankruptcy shareholders will get 5 percent of the new stock, while the other 95 percent goes to the company's noteholders. EPL said it has converted about $470 million of debt to equity.

The company appointed Gary Hanna as chief executive officer and appointed a new five-member board. Hanna has 30 years of administrative experience in the energy industry with Admiral Energy Services, Tetra Technologies Inc. and other companies.

I March, EPL's founder and chief executive, Richard Bachman, the former top officer at Louisiana Land & Exploration, left the company.

In one of its first production moves, EPL said it had settled an overdue $47 million payment to the federal Minerals Management Service, allowing the company to begin restoring production to one of its fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

When it filed for bankruptcy reorganization on May 1, EPL cited sharply lower petroleum prices, production interruptions stemming from hurricane damage, the collapse of credit markets and debt problems.

The company, founded in 1998, focuses its drilling and production in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in south Louisiana.

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