History
Halcón piled on debt, went through two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, became Battalion Oil, and by August 2026 was a smaller Delaware Basin producer after a failed take-private.
2013-2014: Borrowing to build
The record opens with Halcón Resources leaning on debt. In August 2013 it sold $400 million of 9.25% notes due 2022, using about $392 million to pay down its revolver (a bank credit line), which cut the line's borrowing base (the amount lenders allow it to borrow) from $810 million to $710 million. In December it added another $400 million of 9.75% notes due 2020 and again repaid revolver borrowings. In March 2014 it agreed to sell its east Texas Woodbine properties for $450 million to an unnamed private buyer. Shares on issue rose from about 26 million at the end of 2011 to roughly 416 million by the end of 2013, but the beats do not explain that growth.
2015-2016: Debt swaps and the first bankruptcy
As the stock fell, Halcón tried to shrink its debt. In March 2015 it pushed out the maturity of a $290 million convertible note held by affiliate HALRES LLC and cut its conversion price from $4.50 to $2.44. In April it swapped about $252 million of senior notes for new shares in four deals with Franklin Templeton funds, Goldman Sachs Asset Management funds, J.P. Morgan Securities and Pioneer Investments funds, at roughly $1.69 to $1.82 a share. It also raised $700 million of 8.625% second-lien notes. In September 2015 it exchanged $1.57 billion of unsecured notes for $1.02 billion of new 13% third-lien notes, and in December it did a further exchange into 12% second-lien notes. The NYSE warned twice that the stock had fallen below $1.00, and the lenders cut the borrowing base to $700 million in March 2016.
It was not enough. A restructuring support agreement came in June 2016, creditors approved a pre-packaged plan with over 99% support, and Halcón and 21 subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 on July 27, 2016. The plan took effect on September 9. Third-lien holders received 76.5% of the new stock, unsecured noteholders 15.5%, the convertible holder 4%, and old shareholders just 4%, leaving 90,000,002 shares outstanding. Ares Management and Franklin Advisers, the largest third-lien holders, each designated three of nine directors. A $600 million exit revolver from JPMorgan replaced the debtor-in-possession loan. In October Halcón handed its Tuscaloosa Marine Shale position to an Apollo affiliate, walking away from about $212.5 million of underwater preferred equity.
2017-2018: Moving to the Delaware Basin
The reorganized company went on the offensive. In January 2017 it agreed to buy about 20,748 net acres in Pecos and Reeves Counties, Texas, from Samson Exploration for $705 million. It funded the deal with a $400 million private placement of 8% automatically convertible preferred stock (convertible at $7.25 a share) plus revolver borrowings, and closed on February 28. It also sold $850 million of 6.75% notes due 2025 to redeem the 8.625% secured notes.
In September 2017 it sold its operated Williston Basin position in North Dakota for roughly $1.4 billion, then agreed to sell its remaining non-operated Bakken interests for about $104 million. That left a smaller company focused on the Delaware Basin. In 2018 it bought the West Quito Draw acreage in Ward County from a Shell affiliate for about $199 million cash, and in December sold its water infrastructure to WaterBridge Resources for $200 million upfront plus up to $25 million a year in incentive payments for five years. Share counts rose over these years, but the beats explain only the preferred conversion terms.
2019-2022: Second bankruptcy and a new name
The stock slid again. The NYSE warned in May 2019, then moved to delist it in July, and it traded over the counter. Lenders extended a covenant waiver, and in August Halcón signed a second restructuring agreement with holders of 67.3% of its 6.75% notes. It filed for Chapter 11 again on August 7, 2019, with a $35 million loan from those noteholders. The court confirmed the plan on September 24, cancelling all 164,039,916 existing shares and eliminating over $750 million of debt. The company emerged with a new Bank of Montreal-led revolver, whose borrowing base was cut to $240 million within weeks. Shares on issue fell to about 16 million after the reorganization.
Renamed Battalion Oil Corporation and trading on NYSE American as BATL, it faced the COVID-19 downturn. Its borrowing base fell to $200 million in May 2020, and in November it disclosed a covenant breach and obtained a waiver. In November 2021 it replaced the revolver with a $200 million Macquarie term loan. In May 2022 it formed a joint venture with Caracara Services to build a sour-gas treating facility in Winkler County. The record for 2023 is thin until September.
2023-2024: Insider lifelines and the Fury saga
From September 2023, Battalion's three largest shareholders (Luminus, Oaktree and LSP Investment Advisors) bought new redeemable convertible preferred stock in four rounds, including $37.05 million in the first and $19.5 million each in the third and fourth, for working capital and debt payments.
In December 2023 Battalion agreed to be taken private by Fury Resources for $9.80 a share in cash, with Luminus and Oaktree rolling their preferred stakes into the buyer. Over the following year Fury missed financing deadlines, and Battalion agreed to repeated amendments and extensions. In September 2024 the price was cut to $7.00 a share, with Gen IV Investment Opportunities added as a rolling investor. A definitive proxy followed in October for a November 19 vote. Fury defaulted on further deadlines, and on December 20, 2024 Battalion terminated the agreement after seven amendments and three financing defaults.
2025-2026: Standing alone
One week later Battalion replaced the Macquarie loan with a $162 million facility from Fortress Credit Corp, and drew another $63 million in January 2025. It reported a drilling program running ahead of budget. In June 2025 NYSE American warned that its stockholders' equity was below listing standards, with negative equity of $1.8 million. Its plan was accepted in August, with a deadline of November 30, 2026.
It sold the West Quito Draw acreage to MCM Delaware Resources for a cash-adjusted $60.1 million, less than a third of the 2018 price, and used $40 million to pay down the Fortress loan. In January 2026 it ended a gas-treating agreement with Wink Amine Treater after the plant had been offline since August 2025, and rerouted gas to another provider. In March it raised $15.0 million from an outside investor and bought about 7,090 net acres in Ward County from RoadRunner Resource Holding for 485,000 shares. The share count for 2026 is far higher than the year before, but the beats explain only a small part of that rise. In July it refinanced into a $162.5 million Fortress term loan. On August 7, 2026 it repurchased Gen IV's Series A and A-1 preferred for $19.0 million and Gen IV converted the rest into about 3.49 million common shares, leaving Gen IV with no preferred stock and bound by a 12-month lock-up.
Written from the 87 story beats below (2013 to 7 Aug 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.