Is SemGroup Bankrupt ? News of Oil Trading filing for bankrutpcy ( July 2008 )

Trading companies can go bankrupt in stock market and commodity market. Oil trading and SemGoup bankruptcy news. Even the big can run in bankruptcy problems. Are there other bankrupt companies we will know about soom, anddDoes this partially explain oil-price violent parabolic move, followed by the fast retreat?

I read these two news stories below. They seem to have been forced to cover their position, which may explain the fast up move of Oil price, and then the subsequent fall which seem to coincide with the end of short position covering.

Are there other entities that have fallen?

The Financial Times - Oil trading company files for bankruptcy Access

SemGroup, the US physical oil trader, on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy as it acknowledged trading losses of more than $3.2bn in different energy markets after betting this year that crude oil prices would fall. Its collapse came as oil prices plunged to their lowest levels since early June. West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell to an intraday low of $125.63 a barrel, down $5 on the day. Traders sold oil futures as news emerged that tropical storm Dolly was set to miss oil and natural gas installations in the US Gulf of Mexico. Oil traders said SemGroup could have exacerbated the spike in oil prices this month, when the market experienced unprecedented swings of more than $10 a barrel, as the company was buying back some previous bets on lower prices. The bankruptcy of SemGroup, which describes itself as the fourteenth largest US private held company, affects approximately $3.1bn of debt, according to court filings. Oil company BP is the largest creditor, with almost $160m.


Reuters - Huge oil trading loss sinks energy trader SemGroup

SemGroup took a $2.4 billion loss on July 16 after it transferred its New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures trading account to Barclays Plc, converting what they called "loss contingencies" into an actual loss. Included in the NYMEX loss was $290 million owed to SemGroup by a trading company owned by co-founder and former chief executive Thomas Kivisto, who was placed on administrative leave on July 17. Securities legislation limits publicly traded company executives from extensive dealings with their firms, but experts said privately held companies have more flexibility. . . . SemGroup, ranked the No. 12 private U.S. company by Forbes.com in a 2007 article, also took $850 million in losses on July 17 when its over-the-counter hedging program was marked to market. It listed liabilities of $7.53 billion in its bankruptcy filing, including $3.1 billion of total debt $2 billion of secured debt and $594 million in unsecured notes. SemGroup's financial difficulties were disclosed by its publicly traded affiliate SemGroup Energy Partners LP last week, when it warned that a liquidity crisis at its parent could lead to bankruptcy.