Anadarko/Tronox Bankruptcy

Blake Payton and Luke Suchecki

4/28/14

Tronox Bankruptcy Kerr-Mcgee and Anadarko

Anderson & Kerr Drilling Company was founded in 1929 in Oklahoma, the only assets of the company were three boilers and two steam rigs. The company was later incorporated as A&K Petroleum Company in 1932. In 1935 the company made it first public offering. They made their first refinery purchase 1945 and a year later changed their name to Kerr-McGee Oil industries. In October of 1947 Kerr-McGee completed the first ever off-shore drilling rig the Ship Block 32 well. In 1952 Kerr-McGee began down a destruction path entering the uranium mining and milling industry in the Lukachukai Mountains on the Navojo Nation in Arizona and elsewhere. The company went on to acquire 15 wood-treating plants using the chemical creosote, they later acquired 18 other similar plants. In 1967 Kerr-McGee acquired American Potash & Chemical Corp, along with the acquisition came; a facility in Henderson, Nevada that produced ammonium perchlorate (Rocket Fuel), a radioactive thorium mine in West Chicago, Illinois and a titanium dioxide pigment plant in Hamilton, Mississippi. Thru the 80’ and 90’s Kerr-McGee continued to expand acquiring plants and the exploration and production of both off-shore and on-shore oil and gas operations.

Kerr-McGee discovered they had great success in oil and gas exploration and production but had gained an enormous amount of legacy environmental and tort liabilities. Their portfolio included more than 2,700 environmental sites in 47 states, including federal superfund sites in Jacksonville, FL; Columbus, MS; Manville, NJ; Soda Spring, ID; West Chicago, Il; Milwaukee, WI and Wilmington, NC. By 2001 Kerr-McGee was spending more than 160 million on remediation and tort claims had begun to really pile up. Soon Kerr-McGee realized the chemical and mining side of the business was dragging the company down and felt they needed to separate the Oil and Gas from the Chem....