Free Republic

Whiting Petroleum Corporation WLL has become the first oil and gas sector casualty of the current slump in crude demand in the wake of the coronavirus or Covid-19 global pandemic, and the price war between producers triggered by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Early on Wednesday (April 1), Denver, Colorado, U.S.–headquartered Whiting announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, prompting a suspension of its shares (NYSE:WLL) on the New York Stock Exchange. In a statement, Whiting said its board had concluded that given a severe downturn in oil and...

We keep waiting for the bust, the gigantic rollover of oil companies that just plain collapse under their own weight and the $50 price that you get for West Texas Intermediate. It hasn't happened. We keep waiting for the junk bond market that is riddled with $200 billion in oil and gas paper to be crushed by defaults and restructurings. It hasn't been. In fact, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bd, the high-yield exchange-traded fund that includes a lot of this suspect paper, is pretty much unchanged for the last three years and has enjoyed a sustained rally...