The Houston driller filed paperwork on Thursday to become the 40th North American oil producer prodded into bankruptcy court as crude exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia keep prices depressed by pumping crude all-out, jockeying for a bigger corner of the global oil market. It was the 20th driller headquartered in Texas to file for bankruptcy in the past year.

Swift Energy, founded in 1979 by Aubrey Earl Swift, had trimmed 60 percent of its capital budget, cut 20 percent of its workforce and reduced its office space to cope with the 68-percent slide in U.S. crude prices over the past 19 months. But like several small rivals, Swift is running out of

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