SemGroup seeks court OK to sell NYMEX seats

CHICAGO, April 18 (Reuters) -Energy trading company SemGroup LP [SEMGP.UL] is seeking permission from a bankruptcy judge to auction off two seats it holds on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008, said in a court filing on Friday that it no longer uses the seats for trading energy contracts on NYMEX and has no financial reason to retain the seats.

The auction would be conducted under the rules of NYMEX and its parent, CME Group Inc (CME.O: Quote, Profile, Research), SemGroup said in a court filing on Friday.

But SemGroup asked the court to rule that all proceeds from the sale be distributed according to bankruptcy law, as opposed to NYMEX rules, which would require proceeds to first be used to pay any money owed to the exchange.

SemGroup, once the 14th-largest privately held U.S. company and parent of SemGroup Energy Partners LP (SGLP.PK: Quote, Profile, Research), collapsed last year after $3.2 billion in bad bets on oil prices.

(U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 08-11525) (Reporting by Brad Dorfman; editing by Mohammad Zargham)