» Houston’s Bruin E&P files for bankruptcy.

Bruin E&P Partners, a Houston oil and gas company backed by private equity firm ArcLight, has filed for bankruptcy protection, another casualty of the coronavirus-driven oil crash.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday in federal court in Houston. The privately held company, which is focused on oil and gas production in North Dakota, said it was forced to file for bankruptcy after its lenders reduced the company’s credit line, causing the company to be overdrawn by more than $170 million.

Bruin said in its bankruptcy filing that it has about $1 billion of debt and $11 million in cash. The company reported operating revenue of $582 million in 2019.

“Despite owning and operating a valuable portfolio of oil and gas properties, at currently depressed commodity prices, the debtors do not have sufficient liquidity to cure the borrowing base deficiency,” Bruin said in its bankruptcy filing. “The debtors’ current debt load is unsustainable.”

Bruin joins a growing number of U.S. energy companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out demand for petroleum products and sent prices tumbling.

Eighteen oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy in the second quarter, including Chesapeake Energy, Ultra Petroleum and Whiting Petroleum.

Since the last oil bust, spanning 2014 to 2016, more than 231 oil and gas producers have filed for bankruptcy, bringing more than $152 billion in debt to court, according to Haynes and Boone, a Dallas law firm that has been tracking North American energy bankruptcies since 2015.

Bruin, founded in 2015, was focused on acquiring and developing oil and gas properties in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin of North Dakota. The company, which has 134 employees, operates 475 wells across 155,558 acres in North Dakota.

The oil and gas producer said it has estimated proven reserves of about 193 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company said it produced about 37,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019.

After oil demand and prices plunged in March and April, Bruin said its lenders reduced the company’s credit line to $400 million, down from $710 million, causing the company to be overdrawn by more than $170 million. The cash-strapped company began negotiating with its major creditors to resolve the cash crunch but was unable to come to an agreement, given the market downturn and global pandemic.

“The recent extreme and sudden downturn fundamentally changed the economic landscape surrounding the debtors’ out-of-court deleveraging options and strategic alternatives that might have otherwise been available had the world not been in the midst of a global pandemic,” CEO Matthew Steele said in a court filing Friday.

Bruin has secured $230 million in financing to fund operations through the bankruptcy proceedings, which is expected to take 55 days.

The company plans to eliminate $840 million of its debt through restructuring.

The company’s largest creditors include Halliburton and Select Energy Services.