Third Circuit SemCrude Decision Impacts Oil Producers and Purchasers

Applying Delaware law, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a ruling that will significantly affect the rights of upstream producers of oil and gas and secured creditors generally. The court determined that upstream oil producers did not have automatically perfected security interests in oil they sold prepetition to the debtors. Thus, when the oil was subsequently sold prepetition to downstream purchasers, they acquired the oil as buyers for value free of any lien.

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Douglas Schneller handles a broad range of complex transactional matters involving bank finance and lending; restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency; intercreditor and subordination arrangements, including for mezzanine, leveraged, multi-lien and unitranche financings; claims analysis and reconciliation; and purchases and sales of par and distressed assets such as bank loans, notes, accounts receivable, trade claims, bankruptcy claims, and equity interests. He also counsels clients on a range of other transactional matters, including trade and receivable finance (including default-triggered puts and vendor/account receivable and trade financing); bankruptcy transactional matters including distressed investing, rescue and debtor-in-possession finance, and sales under Bankruptcy Code Section 363; corporate trust and agency; structured products; private placements; portfolio management and monitoring; and securities law matters.