12. Commitments and Contingencies

Our business is affected both directly and indirectly by governmental laws and regulations relating to the oilfield service industry in general, as well as by environmental and safety regulations that specifically apply to our business. Although we have not incurred material costs in connection with our compliance with such laws, there can be no assurance that other developments, such as new environmental laws, regulations and enforcement policies may not result in additional, presently unquantifiable, costs or liabilities to us.

In November 2016, the Company executed documents following a 2009-2010 internal investigation settling with U.S. governmental agencies related to our compliance with U.S. export trade laws and regulations. As anticipated, the administrative fines and penalties agreed to as part of a resolution were within established accruals, and had no material effect on our financial position or results of operations. The investigation and settlement are now closed.

The Company is involved in various other claims, internal investigations, regulatory agency audits and pending or threatened legal actions involving a variety of matters. In many instances, the Company maintains insurance that covers claims arising from risks associated with the business activities of the Company, including claims for premises liability, product liability and other such claims. The Company carries substantial insurance to cover such risks above a self-insured retention. The Company believes and the Company’s experience has been that such insurance has been sufficient to cover such risks. See Item 1A. Risk Factors.

The Company is also a party to claims, threatened and actual litigation, and private arbitration arising from ordinary day to day business activities, in which parties assert claims against the Company for a broad spectrum of potential liabilities, including: individual employment law claims, collective actions under federal employment laws, intellectual property claims, including alleged patent infringement, and/or misappropriation of trade secrets, premises liability claims, personal injuries arising from allegedly defective products, alleged improper payments under anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws and other commercial claims seeking recovery for alleged actual or exemplary damages. For many such contingent claims, the Company’s insurance coverage is inapplicable or an exclusion to coverage may apply. In such instances, settlement or other resolution of such contingent claims could have a material financial or reputational impact on the Company.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company recorded reserves in an amount believed to be sufficient for contingent liabilities representing all contingencies believed to be probable to cover liabilities. The Company has also assessed the potential for additional losses above the amounts accrued as well as potential losses for matters that are not probable but are reasonably possible. The total potential loss on these matters cannot be determined; however, in our opinion, any ultimate liability, to the extent not otherwise provided for and except for the specific cases referred to above, will not materially affect our financial position, cash flow or results of operations. These estimated liabilities are based on the Company’s assessment of the nature of these matters, their progress toward resolution, the advice of legal counsel and outside experts as well as management’s intention and experience.

Further, in some instances, direct or indirect consumers of our products and services, entities providing financing for purchases of our products and services or members of the supply chain for our products and services have become involved in governmental investigations, internal investigations, political or other enforcement matters. In such circumstances, such investigations may adversely impact the ability of consumers of our products, entities providing financial support to such consumers or entities in the supply chain to timely perform their business plans or to timely perform under agreements with us. We may also become involved in these investigations, at substantial cost to the Company.

The on-going, publicly disclosed investigations in Brazil may continue to adversely impact our shipyard customers, their customers, entities providing financing for our shipyard customers and/or entities in the supply chain. We have executed settlements with several shipyard customers since December 28, 2015 concerning contracts for the supply of drilling equipment packages for 16 drillship construction projects in Brazil (collectively the “Supply Contracts”). Pursuant to the terms of the settlements, the Supply Contracts have been terminated. We did not take a charge as a result of the settlement and, on a net basis, there was no change to our prior estimates on our Brazil contracts impacting income. The investigations in Brazil have led to, and are expected to continue to lead to, delays in deliveries to our shipyard customers in Brazil, along with temporary suspension of performance under our remaining supply contracts, and could result in additional cancellations or other breaches of our contracts by our shipyard customers. Our shipyard customers’ customer in Brazil has stated its intent to build some of the drillships it originally contracted for with our shipyard customers. In 2016, in light of the vote by the shareholders of SETE Brasil Participacoes SA to authorize Sete to file for bankruptcy, and a further decline in drilling activity during the first half of the year to record lows and the resulting effect on certain other customers, the Company removed $2.1 billion (unaudited) of orders from its backlog in the first quarter of 2016. Some of the contracts for these orders remain in place and are enforceable. If these customers obtain funding to continue their projects, the Company will pursue resumption of construction and update the backlog accordingly.

In other instances, customers (typically drillship owners or drilling contractors) of our shipyard customers have sought, and may in the future seek, to suspend, delay or cancel their contracts or payments due to such shipyards. As a result, our shipyard customers have sought and may in the future seek to suspend, delay or cancel deliveries of our drilling equipment packages. To the extent our shipyard customers and their customers become engaged in disputes or litigation related to any such suspensions, delays or cancellations, we may also become involved, either directly or indirectly, in such disputes or litigation, as we enforce the terms of our contracts with our shipyard customers. While we manage equipment deliveries and collection of payment to mitigate our financial risk, such delays, suspensions, attempted cancellations, breaches of contract or other similar circumstances, could adversely affect our operating results and could reduce our backlog.

The Company leases certain facilities and equipment under operating leases that expire at various dates through 2041. These leases generally contain renewal options and require the lessee to pay maintenance, insurance, taxes and other operating expenses in addition to the minimum annual rentals. Rental expense related to operating leases approximated $209 million, $246 million, and $327 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Future minimum lease commitments under capital leases and noncancellable operating leases with initial or remaining terms of one year or more at December 31, 2017, are payable as follows (in millions):


	Capital Lease Payments		Operating Lease Payments
2018	$	15	$	130
2019		15		98
2020		15		82
2021		15		67
2022		15		55
Thereafter		273		339

Total future lease commitments	$	348	$	771