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Commitments and Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2016
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | Natural Gas and NGL Processing and Transportation Commitments Effective September 1, 2012, the Company entered into a firm five-year natural gas processing and transportation agreement whereby the Company committed to transport the anticipated natural gas production from a significant portion of its Eagle Ford acreage in South Texas through the counterparty’s system for processing at the counterparty’s facilities. The agreement also includes firm transportation of the natural gas liquids extracted at the counterparty’s processing plant downstream for fractionation. After processing, the residue natural gas is purchased by the counterparty at the tailgate of its processing plant and further transported under its natural gas transportation agreements. The arrangement contains fixed processing and liquids transportation and fractionation fees payable by the Company, and the revenue the Company receives for the residue natural gas varies with the quality of natural gas transported to the processing facilities and the contract period. Under this agreement, if the Company does not meet 80% of the maximum thermal quantity transportation and processing commitments in a contract year, it will be required to pay a deficiency fee per MMBtu of natural gas deficiency. Any quantity in excess of the maximum MMBtu delivered in a contract year can be carried over to the next contract year for purposes of calculating the natural gas deficiency. During certain prior periods, the Company had an immaterial natural gas deficiency, and the counterparty to this agreement waived the deficiency fee. The Company’s remaining aggregate undiscounted minimum commitments under this agreement are $1.6 million at September 30, 2016. The Company paid $0.7 million and $1.6 million in processing and transportation fees under this agreement during the three months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and $2.4 million and $4.3 million in processing and transportation fees under this agreement during the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In late 2015, the Company entered into a 15-year fixed-fee natural gas gathering and processing agreement whereby the Company committed to deliver the anticipated natural gas production from a significant portion of its Loving County, Texas acreage through the counterparty’s gathering system for processing at the counterparty’s facility. Under this agreement, if the Company does not meet the volume commitment for gathering and processing at the facility in a contract year, it will be required to pay a deficiency fee per MMBtu of natural gas deficiency. At the end of each year of the agreement, the Company can elect to have the previous year’s actual gathering and processing volumes be the new minimum commitment for each of the remaining years of the contract. As such, the Company has the ability to unilaterally reduce the gathering and processing commitment if the Company’s production in the Loving County area is less than the Company’s currently projected production. If the Company ceased operations in this area at September 30, 2016, the total deficiency fee required to be paid would be approximately $12.0 million. In addition, if the Company elects to reduce the gathering and processing commitment in any year, the Company has the ability to elect to increase the committed volumes in any future year to the originally agreed gathering and processing commitment. Any quantity in excess of the volume commitment delivered in a contract year can be carried over to the next contract year for purposes of calculating the natural gas deficiency. The Company paid approximately $2.4 million in processing and gathering fees under this agreement during the three months ended September 30, 2016 and $7.1 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2016. The Company can elect to either sell the residue gas to the counterparty at the tailgate of its processing plant or have the counterparty deliver to the Company the residue gas in-kind to be sold to third parties downstream of the plant. Other Commitments The Company does not own or operate its own drilling rigs, but instead enters into contracts with third parties for such rigs. These contracts establish daily rates for the drilling rigs and the term of the Company’s commitment for the drilling services to be provided, which have typically been for one year or less, although the Company has entered into longer-term contracts in order to secure new drilling rigs equipped with the latest technology in plays that were until recently experiencing heavy demand for drilling rigs. The Company would incur a termination obligation if the Company elected to terminate a contract and the drilling contractor were unable to secure work for the contracted drilling rigs or if the drilling contractor were unable to secure replacement work for the contracted drilling rigs at the same daily rates being charged to the Company prior to the end of their respective contract terms. The Company’s undiscounted minimum outstanding aggregate termination obligations under its drilling rig contracts were approximately $43.0 million at September 30, 2016. The Company entered into an agreement in late 2015 with a third party for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of a natural gas processing plant in the Rustler Breaks asset area in Eddy County, New Mexico. The plant was completed in the third quarter of 2016 and currently processes a portion of the Company’s natural gas produced from certain of its wells in the Delaware Basin. At September 30, 2016, total remaining commitments under this contract were $4.2 million, and the Company made payments totaling $1.4 million during the three months ended September 30, 2016 and $19.2 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2016. At September 30, 2016, the Company had agreed to participate in the drilling and completion of various non-operated wells. If all of these wells are drilled and completed, the Company will have undiscounted minimum outstanding aggregate commitments for its participation in these wells of approximately $11.2 million at September 30, 2016, which the Company expects to incur within the next few months. Legal Proceedings The Company is a party to several lawsuits encountered in the ordinary course of its business. While the ultimate outcome and impact to the Company cannot be predicted with certainty, in the opinion of management, it is remote that these lawsuits will have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

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