Cobalt is a long-running post-confirmation case: the Fourth Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan has been confirmed and effective for years, distributions are substantially complete, and the Plan Administrator is still filing quarterly reports because no final decree has been entered. The latest available report, the March 2026 Post-Confirmation ReportDkt. 1399, shows $454,595 of cash disbursements during the quarter ended March 31, 2026, cumulative transfers of about $1.562 billion since the April 10, 2018 effective date, secured claim recoveries paid at 94% of allowed claims, and administrative and general unsecured claims paid at 100% of allowed claims.
The debtors filed chapter 11 in December 2017 after a balance-sheet and liquidity problem around a deepwater oil and gas exploration business with Gulf of Mexico and West Africa assets. The lead debtor’s Voluntary PetitionDkt. 1 opened the main case, with affiliated Gulf of Mexico and holding-company debtors filing alongside it, and the First Day DeclarationDkt. 16 framed the cases around the debtors’ capital structure, asset base, and need to preserve value through chapter 11. By the disclosure statement stage, the estate was carrying roughly $2.84 billion of funded debt, including $500 million of first lien secured notes, $934.7 million of second lien secured notes, and about $1.406 billion of convertible unsecured notes, as described in the Disclosure StatementDkt. 274.
The restructuring path resolved through a confirmed plan paired with a sale transaction. The court entered the Confirmation and Sale OrderDkt. 784 on April 5, 2018, confirming the Fourth Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan and approving the sale transaction, and the post-confirmation reports state that the plan became effective on April 10, 2018. Since then, the case has functioned as a wind-down and distribution vehicle rather than an operating reorganization.
Current activity is therefore administrative: the Plan Administrator continues to report remaining disbursements, claim-class recovery status, and professional-fee history. The December 2025 Post-Confirmation ReportDkt. 1398 stated that a final decree had not yet been entered and did not give an expected application date, and the March 2026 report continued the same post-confirmation reporting cadence.
