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Commitments and Contingencies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2021
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
Note 11—Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments
The Company routinely enters into, extends or amends operating agreements in the ordinary course of business. There have been no material, non-routine changes in commitments during the six months ended June 30, 2021. Please refer to Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies included in Part II, Item 8 in the Company’s 2020 Annual Report.
The Company has a firm crude oil sales agreement with a large integrated oil company, and in the first quarter of 2021, new pricing terms under this agreement went into effect. Utilizing this integrated oil company’s transport capacity out of the Permian Basin, the agreement provides for firm gross sales of 30,000 Bbls/d over the next 4 years and is based upon prevailing market prices of ICE Brent less contractual differentials. These pricing terms are resulting in realized prices that currently have wider differentials than those being realized under the Company’s other oil marketing agreements. However, if the oil price differential between the ICE Brent and NYMEX WTI indices widen in the future, the oil price realized under this delivery commitment will improve relative to the prices realized under the Company’s other oil sales contracts. Under-delivery of volumes that are committed under this agreement would result in a financial obligation to the Company, although the Company’s current production level (on a gross basis) is, and the Company believes its future production will be, sufficient to fulfill this physical delivery commitment.
Contingencies
The Company may at times be subject to various commercial or regulatory claims, prior period adjustments from service providers, litigation or other legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business. While the outcome of these lawsuits and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, management believes it is remote that the impact of such matters, other than those discussed below, that are reasonably possible to occur will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
In February 2021, the Permian Basin was impacted by record-low temperatures and a severe winter storm (“Winter Storm Uri”) that resulted in multi-day electrical outages and shortages, pipeline and infrastructure freezes, transportation disruptions, and regulatory actions in Texas, which led to significant increases in gas prices, gathering, processing and transportation fees and electrical rates during this time. As a result, many oil and gas operations, including upstream producers like the Company, as well as gas processors and purchasers, and transportation providers experienced operational disruptions. During this time, the Company was unable to utilize the entire volume of its reserved capacity on pipelines and as a result has made certain force majeure declarations. One third-party transportation provider has filed a lawsuit against the Company claiming compensation for the full amount of the reserved capacity, both utilized and unutilized. The Company has made a payment for the utilized capacity, and filed a separate lawsuit against the transportation provider requesting declaratory relief for the purpose of construing the provisions of the transportation agreement relating to the unutilized capacity. At this time, the Company believes that a loss is reasonably possible in relation to these matters and such amount could range from zero to $7.6 million, and no amount in that range is a better estimate than any other.
Other than the matter above, management is unaware of any pending litigation brought against the Company requiring a contingent liability to be recognized as of the date of these consolidated financial statements.