Montco Offshore says settlement party holding up plan effective date

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Jan. 26 – Montco Offshore, Inc. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to enforce a settlement reached with Alliance Offshore, LLC and Alliance Energy Services, LLC, as the Alliance entities are refusing to sign the agreement and holding up Montco’s plan of liquidation effective date, according to a motion filed Friday.

“Alliance insists on additional terms including, but not limited to, agreements by third parties who did not participate in the mediation,” Montco said.

Specifically, Montco said Alliance’s refusal to sign the settlement is based on issues related to the transfer of a 51% ownership interest in Big Sky Hangars, LLC to Alliance affiliate Whitney Group, LLC from Lee Orgeron.

According to the motion, Alliance is not willing to accept transfer of the ownership interest without an agreement from the minority interest owners to change the historical course of dealing related to the governance of Big Sky.

“Such a change was not a term of the mediation, and Alliance’s obligation to proceed with the settlement cannot now be conditioned on such a provision,” Montco said.

The company also said the ownership interest is only one part of the compensation to be paid to Alliance by Orgeron under the settlement. In addition to the ownership transfer, Montco said the settlement calls for a $3 million cash payment, “which Mr. Orgeron is willing to pay and, presumably, Alliance is willing to accept.”

“Alliance’s 11th-hour holdup is nothing more than an effort to extract compensation above and beyond the amount to which the parties agreed,” Montco said. “Consummation of the plan should not be delayed while Alliance attempts to renegotiate a better deal for itself.”

A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30.

Houston-based Montco operates lift boats for the offshore energy industry. The company filed for bankruptcy on March 17, 2017 under Chapter 11 case number 17-31646.

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