'Furious' Samson judge rebukes banks

Samson Resources Corp lenders received a sharp rebuke at the company's initial bankruptcy hearing, when a judge said they made him "furious" by asking for too much too soon in the oil-and-gas driller's reorganisation effort.

On Samson's first day in court since filing for Chapter 11 protection, US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi refused to give the company's senior lenders certain collateral rights over assets that weren't already backing any debt.

"You are asking for something I don't want to give you, and you're saying you are going to kill the company if I don't give you want you want," Sontchi in Wilmington, Delaware. "This was not the way to start our relationship."

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company is planning for a quicker-than-normal trip through bankruptcy after cutting a deal with a group of second-lien lenders that requires Samson to win Sontchi's approval for reorganisation by December 15.

Samson is co-owned by private-equity company KKR & Co. Sontchi is presiding over the bankruptcy of another KKR investment, Energy Future Holdings Corp, which also had a rocky start to its Chapter 11 case. Energy Future entered court oversight in April 2014 with a deal with creditors to try to reorganise quickly, but Sontchi ruled against the company on a key legal issue, adding about a year to KKR's original bankruptcy timeline.

A few minutes after hearing Sontchi's rebuke, attorneys for the lenders' agents backed down, saying they had erred by giving the judge the impression that they were threatening to block the company's access to enough cash to keep operating.