Gulfport Energy in Oklahoma City revealed this week its natural gas production was hurt by the December 2022 weather event called Winter Storm Elliott.
The company made the admission in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that the “abnormally cold temperatures across both Oklahoma and Ohio—led to production downtime.”
Gulfport explained it was primarily related to capacity constraints on its midstream and downstream pipeline systems. As a result, fourth quarter production and related prices were “negatively impacted.”
Gulfport estimates its fourth quarter 2022 production was negatively impacted by approximately 2%, or 20,000 thousand cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (“Mcfe/day”). The company successfully restored the affected production across all its operating areas and expects the weather-related downtime to be confined to the fourth quarter.
Gulfport also confirmed it settled its legal fight with Rover, a pipeline dispute that at one time was part of Gulfport’s Chapter 11 case.
On February 7, 2023, Gulfport finalized a settlement agreement with Rover. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, Gulfport and Rover agreed that the firm transportation contracts between Gulfport and Rover would be rejected.
If approved by the bankruptcy court, Rover will receive a $85.9 million claim with an initial $18.3 million distribution payable by the liquidating trust. The SEC filing indicated that once Gulfport pays a $1 million administrative claim, it will have no furth er obligations to Rover.
The Bankruptcy Court Order will also provide that a further interim distribution will be payable by the liquidating trust within 5 days, and accordingly, Gulfport expects to receive an additional $17.7 million distribution for its previously disclosed claims against TC Energy Corporation as part of such interim distribution.
The timing and amount of any future distributions to Gulfport are not certain, and the total amount received will be impacted by the liquidating trust’s distributions and resolution of other remaining bankruptcy claims.
