spirit07, Tulsa (8/19/2009 6:37:41 PM)

More crooked big oil and banks. Wow, big suprise.

OKBackbone42, Tulsa (8/20/2009 8:44:26 AM)

Could someone point out where the crooked oil company is in this situation? The producers hurt here, most of which are small mom and pop operations, have done and are doing nothing crooked. They are owed money for a product sold to a purchaser who has yet to pay them. Crooked service company, not oil company. Don't lump them together.

wow, (8/20/2009 10:16:30 PM)

To both of the earlier posts, this is not good for anybody that provided a service to sem. But there is absolutely no good explanation to place producers in front of other vendors. Everyone needs to get in line. Producers took the same risk as the guy that sold them paper. The moral solution is for everyone to get the same amount(which would not be much).

Mimosa_House, Tulsa (8/21/2009 7:22:47 AM)

You can say "get in line" all you want, but if you're only getting four cents for every dollar you're owed, while everyone around you is getting 95 cents for every dollar owed, then it's a problem.

ok producer, (8/21/2009 11:34:19 AM)

Dear Wow, Producers are not trying to "Get In Front of Other Vendors" to receive money from the bankruptcy estate, because Oklahoma Law clearly states money from the sale of Oklahoma Oil and Gas does not belong to the bankruptcy estate until after the producers are paid for their Oil & or Gas. Producers wish ALL Vendors had that same protection.

Producers are saying the main lending bank (BOA) is getting estate money that does not yet belong to the estate. The Appellate Court is trying to give a true judgement of the existing Oklahoma Oil and Gas Law to determine: if an Oklahoma Producer has not been paid yet, does the money from the sale of that Oil and Gas belong to the bankruptcy estate yet, or should that money be held aside to pay the Producer before anyone else. This needs to be determined before money that does not yet belong to the estate (per Oklahoma Law) is handed over to BOA.

A reasonable compromise would be for the reorganization proposal to set aside (out of BOA money) enough to cover all producer claims from all states until the Appellate Court can make a final judgement. That way money would be available to be placed where it belongs after the Appellate Courts judgement. The current reorganization proposal does not have any money available to pay the producers if the Appellate Court rules the money truly belongs to producers first instead of BOA.

Even with this compromise, how much money is enough is a big question. Most of the Sem branches are trying to reduce the producer claim total by disputing their own numbers as to how much is owed to many producers. The best way is to wait for the Appellate Court judgement, then determine the correct amount owed, then confirm a revised reorganization proposal based on the Appellate judgement. If you want to fasttrack the reorganization, just set aside a high producer claim total (instead of a low ball amount which Sem is trying to do now) out of BOA money so there is enough money to go where it belongs when the final bell rings.

inquisitor, (8/23/2009 1:46:44 PM)

Kivisto, Wallace, et. al. were at best incompetent, at worst criminal. But the producers were screwed by Alix Partners, Blackstone, and Weil Gotschal. These were the groups who decided when the bankruptcy would be filed and if you look at the date I imagine it correlates with the settlement date for payment of producers from the previous months field collection. These groups were involved weeks before the bankruptcy and understood they were filling tanks with what would eventually be free oil if they timed their filing right. This was willful theft, sanctioned by bankruptcy laws. The checks that were written for those producers for the settlement date, bounced, but the calculus behind the scenes established the date of the filing so they would never clear even though there was ample cash available. I hope the producers have success in establishing their priority. They have been set up to be screwed from the moment the outside management firms came in and those firms have a lot more to gain from B of A being protect than from the producers being protected. This is ultimately a states rights issue. Do the laws of OK and its natural resources commerce have precedent or do the Bankruptcy laws of Delaware being adjudicated in a US court protect the premeditated theft that Alix Partners, Blackstone, and Weil Gotschal executed (what a great business model)under the "protection" of bankruptcy? Lobbying money and connections to DC don't tilt the odds in favor of this flyover state and its trusting populace.

Cassius Dio, (8/23/2009 8:56:32 PM)

The Court should look at the effect of a decision against the producers. Does it really want to make it difficult and more costly to sell crude, as the seller may never know the buyer’s financial condition?

If the producers get paid and the banks take the haircut, maybe future banks would never extend billions to a Kivisto knowing that their “secured” position is not sacrosanct.