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Guarantees
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Guarantees [Abstract]  
Guarantees
Note 12—Guarantees
 
 
At December 31, 2019, we were liable for certain contingent
 
obligations under various contractual
arrangements as described below.
 
We
 
recognize a liability, at inception, for the fair value of our obligation as
a guarantor for newly issued or modified guarantees.
 
Unless the carrying amount of the liability is
 
noted
below, we have not recognized a liability because the fair value of the obligation is
 
immaterial.
 
In addition,
unless otherwise stated, we are not currently performing
 
with any significance under the guarantee and expect
future performance to be either immaterial or have
 
only a remote chance of occurrence.
 
 
APLNG Guarantees
 
At December 31, 2019, we had outstanding multiple
 
guarantees in connection with our
37.5
 
percent ownership
interest in APLNG.
 
The following is a description of the guarantees with
 
values calculated utilizing
 
December
2019 exchange rates:
 
 
 
During the third quarter of 2016, we issued a guarantee
 
to facilitate the withdrawal of our pro-rata
portion of the funds in a project finance reserve account.
 
We
 
estimate the remaining term of this
guarantee is
11 years
.
 
Our maximum exposure under this guarantee is approximately
 
$
170
 
million
and may become payable if an enforcement action
 
is commenced by the project finance lenders
against APLNG.
 
At December 31, 2019, the carrying value
 
of this guarantee is approximately $
14
million.
 
 
In conjunction with our original purchase of an ownership
 
interest in APLNG from Origin Energy in
October 2008, we agreed to reimburse Origin Energy for our
 
share of the existing contingent liability
arising under guarantees of an existing obligation of
 
APLNG to deliver natural gas under several
 
sales
agreements with remaining terms of up to
22 years
.
 
Our maximum potential liability for future
payments, or cost of volume delivery, under these guarantees is estimated to be $
780
 
million ($
1.4
billion in the event of intentional or reckless breach)
 
and would become payable if APLNG fails to
meet its obligations under these agreements and the
 
obligations cannot otherwise be mitigated.
 
Future
payments are considered unlikely, as the payments, or cost of volume delivery, would only be
triggered if APLNG does not have enough natural gas
 
to meet these sales commitments and if the
 
co-
venturers do not make necessary equity contributions
 
into APLNG.
 
 
We
 
have guaranteed the performance of APLNG
 
with regard to certain other contracts executed in
connection with the project’s continued development.
 
The guarantees have remaining terms of up
 
to
26 years or the life of the venture
.
 
As of December 31, 2019, we were released from certain of
 
these
guarantees considered subordinated financial support
 
to APLNG.
 
Our remaining maximum potential
amount of future payments related to the remaining
 
guarantees is approximately $
60
 
million and
would become payable if APLNG does not perform.
 
Other Guarantees
 
We
 
have other guarantees with maximum
 
future potential payment amounts totaling
 
approximately
$
820
 
million, which consist primarily of guarantees
 
of the residual value of leased office buildings, guarantees
of the residual value of leased corporate aircraft, and
 
a guarantee for our portion of a joint venture’s project
finance reserve accounts.
 
These guarantees have remaining terms of up to
three years
 
and would become
payable if, upon sale, certain asset values are lower
 
than guaranteed amounts, business conditions
 
decline at
guaranteed entities, or as a result of nonperformance
 
of contractual terms by guaranteed parties.
 
 
 
In conjunction with the disposition of our two U.K.
 
subsidiaries to Chrysaor E&P Limited, we will
 
temporarily
continue to support various guarantees and letters
 
of credit which were provided for the benefit
 
of entities that
are now affiliates of Chrysaor E&P Limited.
 
Our maximum potential payment exposure under
 
these
obligations is approximately $
100
 
million.
 
Chrysaor E&P Limited has agreed to fully
 
indemnify
ConocoPhillips for any losses suffered by us related to these
 
obligations.
 
 
 
Indemnifications
 
Over the years, we have entered into agreements to
 
sell ownership interests in certain corporations,
 
joint
ventures and assets that gave rise to qualifying indemnifications.
 
These agreements include indemnifications
for taxes, environmental liabilities, employee claims
 
and litigation.
 
The terms of these indemnifications vary
greatly.
 
The majority of these indemnifications
 
are related to environmental issues, the term
 
is generally
indefinite and the maximum amount of future payments
 
is generally unlimited.
 
The carrying amount recorded
for these indemnifications at December 31, 2019, was approximately
 
$
80
 
million.
 
We
 
amortize the
indemnification liability over the relevant time
 
period, if one exists, based on the facts and circumstances
surrounding each type of indemnity.
 
In cases where the indemnification term is
 
indefinite, we will reverse the
liability when we have information the liability is
 
essentially relieved or amortize the liability
 
over an
appropriate time period as the fair value of our indemnification
 
exposure declines.
 
Although it is reasonably
possible future payments may exceed amounts recorded,
 
due to the nature of the indemnifications,
 
it is not
possible to make a reasonable estimate of the maximum
 
potential amount of future payments.
 
Included in the
recorded carrying amount at December 31, 2019, were approximately
 
$
30
 
million of environmental accruals
for known contamination that are included in the “Asset
 
retirement obligations and accrued environmental
costs” line on our consolidated balance sheet.
 
For additional information about environmental
 
liabilities, see
Note 13—Contingencies and Commitments.