Hunts’ Oil Firm Reaches Accord With Creditors

Placid Oil Co., the jewel of the Hunt family’s dwindling fortune, and 23 creditor banks Friday filed a court document signaling formal agreement on a deal to take the independent oil company out of bankruptcy, lawyers said.

Facing a court deadline, attorneys for both sides filed a so-called essential terms agreement with federal bankruptcy court Judge Harold Abramson.

Abramson had threatened to begin a hearing Friday on the development of a court-ordered scheme for Placid to repay $1.5 billion in bank debt unless the attorneys presented him with proof both sides had mapped out an agreement.

Details of the Placid-creditors agreement were not made public, though a lawyer for Placid said the document may be made public next week. Attorneys for the banks could not be reached.

After a brief meeting with lawyers, Abramson adjourned his planned hearing for June 21.

“We are definitely going down the pike to . . . (settlement). Everything’s moving on very well, right on schedule,” said Placid attorney Tom Armstrong.

Placid, one of the nation’s biggest independent oil companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, 1986, when oil prices were bottoming out around $10 a barrel. The court allowed Placid to continue doing business while an agreement was developed to repay its creditors.