US shale firm exits bankruptcy to find just-as-tough new chapter

New York

MAGNUM Hunter Resources Corp and its founder Gary Evans are emblematic for the US shale revolution: it started small, borrowed heavily to snap up land and rivals and then crumbled under the weight of debt when prices crashed.

Now, the oil and gas company is among the first casualties of the energy slump to exit bankruptcy and Mr Evans has a message for its peers: even once you are debt-free, you cannot take survival for granted if energy prices do not recover soon.