Houston-based oil and gas producer Energy XXI announced on Thursday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid the oil price drop-off, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The company, which specializes in Gulf of Mexico projects, will continue operations under court-supervised restructuring for the benefit of its creditors, as entailed in Chapter 11.
In its statement the company said it has around $180m cash in hand plus funds from ongoing operations, which will enable it to carry on functioning.
Under the deal Energy XXI, a prominent shallow water driller in the Gulf, will erase around $2.8bn in debt from its balance sheet.
Energy XXI is the latest in a series of heavily indebted oil firms to head for the bankruptcy route because of the precipitous decline prices the past two years.
