HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas petrochemical producer TCP Group filed for chapter safety on Wednesday with a plan handy over management to its lenders, after struggling beneath prices and authorized claims from a 2019 fireplace.

The Houston-based agency filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Chapter Court docket for the District of Delaware with plans to eradicate $950 million of $1.3 billion in secured debt and shed liabilities from an explosion and fireplace at its plant in Port Neches, Texas. The corporate had negotiated and agreed the take care of debt-holders.

The biggest North American processor of the petrochemicals butane and butadiene, plans to proceed operations whereas it restructures, stated Chief Govt Edward J. Dineen in a press release. The chemical substances are utilized in manufacturing of plastics, tires and gasoline.

The corporate faces federal and state investigations over the Port Neches fireplace, and is in negotiations with a committee representing some 7,000 claims for property injury, enterprise interruption and private harm, in accordance with court docket filings.

The hearth was “a crucial occasion resulting in” the chapter, in accordance with a court docket submitting. The pandemic later lower into its enterprise, reducing 2020 income practically in half in comparison with 2019, and a winter storm in 2021 additionally hit gross sales, it stated.

The case is U.S. Chapter Court docket, District of Delaware, No. 22-10493.