Royal Helium has filed for protection under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) to restructure its debts and negotiate with creditors.
The Canadian helium exploration and production company had been seeking additional capital to address working capital requirements, creditor obligations, and the engineering needs to re-commission its Steveville Helium Facility.
After reviewing alternatives and consulting with legal counsel, Royal Helium’s Board of Directors concluded that filing under the BIA was in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.
The filing under the BIA includes a stay of proceedings in favour of the company and the appointment of Doane Grant Thornton LLP as the proposed Trustee of Royal Helium.
Royal Helium applied for creditor protection under the BIA to pause legal actions and work with the Trustee on a path forward.
This includes addressing immediate administrative needs, running a court-supervised sales process, and seeking a solution to maintain operations while maximising asset value for its stakeholders.
Royal Helium has also announced the resignation of its acting Chief Operating Officer, Shayne Neigum. The company said Neigum has moved on to pursue other opportunities.
A replacement has not yet been named.
Royal Helium had strong ambitions for 2024, with its CEO at the time stating that the company planned to have ‘multiple facilities operational in the short term’.
Additionally, the company said its 2024 plans would be centred on completing and testing existing wells in the Val Marie, Ogema, and Steveville properties and new drilling on a 40-mile project in Alberta, Canada.
Read more: Royal Helium unveils plans to have multiple facilities operational in the ‘short-term’
Later, in June 2024, Royal Helium confirmed that helium sales from its Steveville helium purification plant in Alberta are successfully underway. At the time, the company had completed 12th and 13th helium trailer sales from the plant, which started up in October 2023.
Royal Helium’s Steveville plant had been engineered to process 15,000 mcf/day of raw gas fed by two of the company’s helium wells. With this, the facility has an output capacity of around 22,000 mcf of 99.9999% helium per year.
