US Shipping Partners has thrown in the towel one year after first revealing its troubles with lenders, applying to the US Bankruptcy Court for Chapter 11 protection.

Mr Paul Gridley and Mr Albert Bergeron, who departed last year as US Shipping’s CEO and CFO respectively, have now surfaced as creditors, to whom US Shipping owes close to USD 1 million each.

The New York listed Jones Act tanker company, which is a limited partnership, had a deadline of April 30th 2009 to hammer out an acceptable restructuring with its lenders. The Chapter 11 petition was filed a day earlier, instead of seeking another loan extension. The lenders had kept extending the deadline since last summer, in hopes that the company’s desire to find a suitable buyer would bear fruit.

US Shipping had a falling out with its joint venture partner Blackstone Group in a series of product tanker new buildings under way at Nassco in San Diego. US Shipping in turn has sued Blackstone to prevent this from happening. This legal action is wrapped into the package of actions brought by US Shipping, as it seeks bankruptcy protection.

In court papers filed, US Shipping is showing total assets of USD 717.4 million and total debts of USD 606.5 million. The number of creditors is given as falling in the range of 200-999.

Jefferies & Co heads the list of the top 30 unsecured creditors, with USD 2.3 million shown as owed. Mr Gridley and Mr Bergeron follow, with USD 977,000 and USD 852,000 each. The rest of the unsecured list comprises vendors.

US Shipping has previously announced some USD 332 million in outstanding senior credit facility borrowings. US Shipping also has USD 100 million in outstanding secured 13% bonds due in 2014, which are shown as held by 13 entities.

(Sourced from Lloyd's List)