SemGroup creditors to get say in case
Bankruptcy U.S. will represent oil, fuel makers

BY JACK MONEY
Published: October 4, 2008

Oklahoma oil producers who sold SemGroup oil and natural gas and haven’t been paid will be represented in the company’s ongoing bankruptcy case, federal Judge Brendan L. Shannon decided Friday.

Steven Bugg, an attorney with McAfee & Taft in Oklahoma City, said the judge agreed to producers’ requests to appoint a committee to represent them as a group.

The committee will be appointed by the Office of the U.S. Trustee after suggestions from attorneys, Bugg said Friday.

Getting heard

Bugg said the committee will represent royalty owners, working interest owners and over-riding royalty interest owners. Attorneys representing other, unsecured creditors had argued the committee had not been needed, but Oklahoma petroleum producers had worried they were being shut out of the bankruptcy case.

Attorneys representing individual producers also argue their clients’ claims should be considered before those of unsecured creditors.

"That’s what we argued before the judge, and he agreed with our position,” Bugg said.

Reaction at home

"This is certainly a step in the right direction — maybe a giant step,” said Mike Terry, president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association.

"It’s about time that someone stood up for the producers,” Terry said. "Especially those smaller operators out there who can’t afford to hire a Delaware law firm.”