Cash-starved oil-and-gas companies are getting a lot of mileage out of their assets these days. A severe slump in commodity prices has sent energy explorers and producers scrambling to shore up their balance sheets, leading to a flurry of debt sales this year by the industry’s most financially strained firms. The new bonds typically promise creditors ownership of the company’s assets, should it default. But in many cases, that claim sits behind the liens of one or even two higher-priority slices of debt. Halcon Resources Corp. highlighted the trend late Thursday, exchanging $1.57 billion in unsecured bonds for $1.02 billion in new “third-lien” debt , backed by a claim on the company’s assets that sits behind those of its credit line and $700 million in bonds the company sold in May. Halcon followed Midstates Petroleum Co., a Tusla oil-and-gas company that in May issued $504 million in bonds with […]