California Resources Corporation

California Resources Corporation (CRC) could not stave off bankruptcy in 2020, hit simultaneously by a price war in oil & gas and the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

“CRC will emerge from Chapter 11 as a strong, healthy company committed to providing Californians with safe, affordable, reliable and locally produced energy, good-paying jobs and millions of dollars in annual government revenues for vital public services for many years to come," said Todd Stevens, president and CEO. "We take this role very seriously, and our commitment to ensuring a safe, diverse, and resilient supply of energy from California resources will not change.”

CRC is the state’s largest oil and gas production company with more than two million acres of reserves spanning four major basins. The company is seeking relief from $5 billion in debt and looming interest payments. The Santa Clarita-based company, created in late 2014 as a spin-off from Occidental Petroleum, was saddled with debt from its inception after transferring billions of dollars to Occidental.

A global oil price war earlier this year and pandemic-related stay-at-home orders have caused steep drops in demand and caused huge losses to CRC's market value. As of mid-July, its share prices had plunged 92% in the past 12 months.

The company’s FRISK® score had been a flat “1” for the last few years:

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California Resources Corporation FRISK® score
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  • “Merton”-type model of stock market capitalization and volatility
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Since the start of 2017, the FRISK® score’s rate of success in capturing public company bankruptcy is 96%. In any given year, you can count on one hand the times we miss – and in those outlier cases, the circumstances deal with unusual, unforeseen events such as natural disasters and CEO fraud.

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