Moody’s: Oil crash “Catastrophic”; worse that dot-com bust

Moody’s: Oil crash is worse that dot-com bust 

Across the North American oil patch, the 2014 oil bust is still playing out. For outsiders, it may look as if the crash is now over and companies are starting the recovery process. However, depressed oil prices are still wreaking havoc in the North American oil industry.

The most recent tally of oil patch bankruptcies is $66.5 billion, according to law firm Haynes and Boone LP’s Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor. But this tally only includes exploration and production companies, oil service companies and those enterprises that provide ancillary services to the industry are excluded from the Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor.

According to credit rating agency Moody’s the default rates for oil and gas and metals...