Pacific Drilling has joined the likes of Valaris, Diamond Offshore and Noble Corp in heading down the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection route at a court in Texas.
“With approximately $120 million of cash and cash equivalents as of October 30, 2020, and seven of the most advanced high-specification drillships in the world, Pacific Drilling intends to continue its world-wide operations as usual, deliver services for existing and prospective clients and, subject to court approval, pay all obligations incurred during the Chapter 11 case in full,” the company stated in a release on Friday.
Pacific Drilling said it expects to emerge by year-end with access to new capital in the form of an $80m exit facility and with approximately $100m of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet.
Bernie Wolford, CEO, stated, “After spending several months evaluating options for addressing our long-term financial needs in light of challenging market and operational conditions, we are pleased to reach agreement with an ad hoc group of our noteholders that paves the way for an expeditious Chapter 11 restructuring process. This restructuring is intended to enhance our financial flexibility by eliminating our entire prepetition debt and cash interest burden. We expect to emerge from this process in a stronger position to compete in today’s challenging, lower-commodity-price environment.”
