Asset Retirement Obligations (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Asset Retirement Obligation Disclosure [Abstract]

Reconciliation of Beginning and Ending Aggregate Carrying Amounts of Asset Retirement Obligation

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending aggregate carrying amounts of the asset retirement obligations for the period from December 31, 2012 to September 30, 2013 is as follows (in thousands):



Asset retirement obligations at December 31, 2012	$	498,410
Liability incurred upon acquiring and drilling wells	4,145
Revisions in estimated cash flows	(206		)
Liability settled or disposed in current period(1)	(100,653		)
Accretion	28,051
Asset retirement obligations at September 30, 2013	429,747
Less: current portion	71,446
Asset retirement obligations, net of current	$	358,301

____________________

(1)

Liability settled or disposed during the nine-month period ended September 30, 2013 includes $22.7 million for the settlement of a plugging and abandonment obligation associated with the Company’s Bullwinkle platform in the Gulf of Mexico and $15.2 million disposed in conjunction with the sale of the Permian Properties in February 2013. Additionally, $17.1 million and $21.3 million were spent in the East Breaks and West Delta regions, respectively, to decommission various platforms, pipeline and associated wells during the nine-month period ended September 30, 2013.