Variable Interest Entities

The Company’s significant associated VIEs, including those for which the Company has determined it is the primary beneficiary and those for which it has determined it is not, are described below.

Royalty Trusts. SandRidge owns beneficial interests in three Delaware statutory trusts. SandRidge Mississippian Trust I (the “Mississippian Trust I”), the Permian Trust and SandRidge Mississippian Trust II (the “Mississippian Trust II”) (each individually, a “Royalty Trust” and collectively, the “Royalty Trusts”) completed initial public offerings of their common units in April 2011, August 2011 and April 2012, respectively. Concurrent with the closing of each offering, the Company conveyed certain royalty interests to each Royalty Trust in exchange for the net proceeds of the offering and units representing beneficial interests in the Royalty Trust. Royalty interests conveyed to the Royalty Trusts are in certain existing wells and wells to be drilled on oil and natural gas properties leased by the Company in defined areas of mutual interest. The following table summarizes information about each Royalty Trust upon completion of its initial public offering:



	Mississippian Trust I			Permian Trust			Mississippian Trust II
Net proceeds of offering (in thousands)	$	336,893		$	580,635		$	587,087
Total outstanding common units	21,000,000			39,375,000			37,293,750
Total outstanding subordinated units	7,000,000			13,125,000			12,431,250
Beneficial interest owned by Company(1)	38.4		%	34.3		%	39.9		%
Liquidation date(2)	12/31/2030			3/31/2031			12/31/2031

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(1)	Subsequent to the initial public offerings, the Company sold common units of the Royalty Trusts it owned in transactions exempt from registration under Rule 144 under the Securities Act. These transactions decreased the Company’s beneficial interests in the Royalty Trusts. See further discussion of the unit sales below.


(2)	At the time each Royalty Trust terminates, 50% of the royalty interests conveyed to the Royalty Trust will automatically revert to the Company, and the remaining 50% will be sold with the proceeds distributed to the Royalty Trust unitholders.

The Royalty Trusts make quarterly cash distributions to unitholders based on calculated distributable income. In order to provide support for cash distributions on the common units, the Company agreed to subordinate a portion of the units it owns in each Royalty Trust (the “subordinated units”), which constitute 25% of the total outstanding units of each Royalty Trust. The subordinated units are entitled to receive pro rata distributions from the Royalty Trusts each quarter if and to the extent there is sufficient cash to provide a cash distribution on the common units that is no less than the applicable quarterly subordination threshold. If there is not sufficient cash to fund such a distribution on all common units, the distribution to be made with respect to the subordinated units will be reduced or eliminated for such quarter in order to make a distribution, to the extent possible, of up to the subordination threshold amount on all common units, including common units held by the Company. In exchange for agreeing to subordinate a portion of its Royalty Trust units, SandRidge is entitled to receive incentive distributions equal to 50% of the amount by which the cash available for distribution on all of the Royalty Trust units exceeds the applicable quarterly incentive threshold.

The Royalty Trusts declared and paid quarterly distributions during the three-month periods ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 as follows (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2014(1)		2013
Total distributions	$	68,313	$	76,361
Distributions to third-party unitholders	$	53,118	$	51,256

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(1)	Subordination thresholds were not met for the Mississippian Trust I’s and Mississippian Trust II’s distributions, resulting in reduced distributions to the Company on its subordinated units for this period.

See Note 19 for discussion of the Royalty Trusts’ distributions announced in April 2014.

Pursuant to the trust agreements governing the Royalty Trusts, SandRidge has a loan commitment to each Royalty Trust, whereby SandRidge will loan funds to the Royalty Trust on an unsecured basis, with terms substantially the same as would be obtained in an arm’s length transaction between SandRidge and an unaffiliated party, if at any time the Royalty Trust’s cash is not sufficient to pay ordinary course administrative expenses as they become due. Any funds loaned may not be used to satisfy indebtedness of the Royalty Trust or to make distributions. There were no amounts outstanding under the loan commitments at March 31, 2014 or December 31, 2013.

The Company and one of its wholly owned subsidiaries entered into a development agreement with each Royalty Trust that obligates the Company to drill, or cause to be drilled, a specified number of wells within respective areas of mutual interest, which are also subject to the royalty interests granted to the Mississippian Trust I, the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II, by December 31, 2015, March 31, 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively. At the end of the fourth full calendar quarter following satisfaction of the Company’s drilling obligation (the “subordination period”), the subordinated units of each Royalty Trust will automatically convert into common units on a one-for-one basis and the Company’s right to receive incentive distributions will terminate. One of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries also granted to each Royalty Trust a lien on the Company’s interests in the properties where the development wells will be drilled in order to secure the estimated amount of drilling costs for the Royalty Trust’s interests in the wells. As the Company fulfills its drilling obligation to each Royalty Trust, development wells that have been drilled and perforated for completion are released from the lien and the total amount that may be recovered by each Royalty Trust is proportionately reduced. In the second quarter of 2013, the Company fulfilled its drilling obligation to the Mississippian Trust I. As of March 31, 2014, the total maximum amount recoverable by the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II under the remaining liens was approximately $85.0 million.

Additionally, the Company and each Royalty Trust entered into an administrative services agreement, pursuant to which the Company provides certain administrative services to the Royalty Trust, including hedge management services to the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II. The Company also entered into derivatives agreements with each Royalty Trust, pursuant to which the Company provides to the Royalty Trust the economic effects of certain of the Company’s derivative contracts. Substantially concurrent with the execution of the derivatives agreements with the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II, the Company novated certain of the derivative contracts underlying the respective derivatives agreements to the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II. The Company novated certain additional derivative contracts underlying the derivatives agreements to the Permian Trust in April 2012 and to the Permian Trust and the Mississippian Trust II in March 2013. The tables below present the open oil and natural gas commodity derivative contracts at March 31, 2014 underlying the derivatives agreements. The combined volume in the tables below reflects the total volume of the Royalty Trusts’ open oil and natural gas commodity derivative contracts.

Oil Price Swaps Underlying the Royalty Trust Derivatives Agreements

Natural Gas Collars Underlying the Royalty Trust Derivatives Agreements



	Notional (MMcf)	Collar Range
April 2014 - December 2014	706	$	4.00	—	$	7.78
January 2015 - December 2015	1,010	$	4.00	—	$	8.55

Oil Price Swaps Underlying the Derivatives Agreements and Novated to the Royalty Trusts

See Note 9 for further discussion of the derivatives agreement between the Company and each Royalty Trust.

The Royalty Trusts are considered VIEs due to the lack of voting or similar decision-making rights of the Royalty Trusts’ equity holders regarding activities that have a significant effect on the economic success of the Royalty Trusts. The Company has determined it is the primary beneficiary of the Royalty Trusts as it has (a) the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the Royalty Trusts through (i) its participation in the creation and structure of the Royalty Trusts, (ii) the manner in which it fulfills its drilling obligations to the Royalty Trusts and (iii) its operation of a majority of the oil and natural gas properties that are subject to the conveyed royalty interests and marketing of the associated production and (b) the obligation to absorb losses and right to receive residual returns, through its variable interests in the Royalty Trusts, including ownership of common and subordinated units, that could potentially be significant to the Royalty Trusts. As a result, the Company began consolidating the activities of the Royalty Trusts into its results of operations upon conveyance of the royalty interests to each Royalty Trust. The common units of the Royalty Trusts owned by third parties are reflected as noncontrolling interest in the consolidated financial statements.

As noted above, the Company fulfilled its drilling obligation to the Mississippian Trust I in the second quarter of 2013. Accordingly, the Mississippian Trust I’s subordinated units, all of which are held by SandRidge, will convert to common units at the end of the subordination period. After this conversion, the Company will continue to consolidate the activities of the Mississippian Trust I as its primary beneficiary due to the Company’s continued (a) power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the Royalty Trust and (b) obligation to absorb losses and right to receive residual returns through its variable interests in the Royalty Trust, including ownership of common units, that could potentially be significant to the Mississippian Trust I.

Each Royalty Trust’s assets can be used to settle only that Royalty Trust’s obligations and not other obligations of the Company or another Royalty Trust. The Royalty Trusts’ creditors have no contractual recourse to the general credit of the Company. Although the Royalty Trusts are included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements, the Company’s legal interest in the Royalty Trusts’ assets is limited to its ownership of the Royalty Trusts’ units. At both March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, $1.3 billion of noncontrolling interest in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets were attributable to the Royalty Trusts. The Royalty Trusts’ assets and liabilities, after considering the effects of intercompany eliminations, included in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets at March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 consisted of the following (in thousands):



	March 31, 2014			December 31, 2013
Cash and cash equivalents(1)	$	7,241		$	7,912
Accounts receivable, net	22,453			22,540
Derivative contracts	3,300			4,983
Total current assets	32,994			35,435
Investment in royalty interests(2)	1,325,942			1,325,942
Less: accumulated depletion and impairment(3)	(243,971		)	(186,095		)
	1,081,971			1,139,847
Derivative contracts	—			1,476
Total assets	$	1,114,965		$	1,176,758
Accounts payable and accrued expenses	$	2,157		$	3,393
Total liabilities	$	2,157		$	3,393

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(1)	Includes $3.0 million held by the trustee at March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 as reserves for future general and administrative expenses.


(2)	Investment in royalty interests is included in oil and natural gas properties in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets.


(3)	Accumulated depletion and impairment at March 31, 2014 includes full cost ceiling limitation impairment allocated to the Royalty Trusts of $42.3 million. There was no full cost ceiling limitation impairment allocated to the Royalty Trusts as of December 31, 2013.

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2014, the Company sold Permian Trust common units it owned in a transaction exempt from registration pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act, which further reduced its beneficial interest in the Permian Trust. Total proceeds from the transaction were $22.1 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2014. The sale was accounted for as an equity transaction with no gain or loss recognized. The Company continues to be the primary beneficiary of the Permian Trust, after consideration of this transaction, as well as the primary beneficiary of the Mississippian Trust I and Mississippian Trust II and accordingly, continues to consolidate the activities of the Royalty Trusts. The Company’s beneficial interests in the Royalty Trusts at March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 were as follows:



	March 31, 2014		December 31, 2013
Mississippian Trust I	26.9	%	26.9	%
Permian Trust	25.0	%	28.5	%
Mississippian Trust II	37.6	%	37.6	%

See Note 11 for discussion of the Company’s legal proceedings to which the Mississippian Trust I and Mississippian Trust II are also parties.

Grey Ranch Plant, L.P. Primarily engaged in treating and transportation of natural gas, Grey Ranch Plant, L.P. (“GRLP”) is a limited partnership that operated the Company’s Grey Ranch plant (the “Plant”) located in Pecos County, Texas. As of December 31, 2013, the Company owned a 50% interest in GRLP, which represented a variable interest. Income or loss of GRLP was allocated to the partners based on ownership percentage and any operating or cash shortfalls required contributions from the partners. The Company determined that GRLP qualified as a VIE because certain equity holders lacked the ability to participate in decisions impacting GRLP. Agreements related to the ownership and operation of GRLP provided for GRLP to pay management fees to the Company to operate the Plant and lease payments for the Plant. Under the operating agreements, lease payments were reduced if throughput volumes were below those expected. The Company determined that it was the primary beneficiary of GRLP as it had both (i) the power, as operator of the Plant, to direct the activities of GRLP that most significantly impact its economic performance and (ii) the obligation to absorb losses, as a result of the operating and gathering agreements, that could potentially be significant to GRLP and, therefore, consolidated the activity of GRLP in its consolidated financial statements. The 50% ownership interest not held by the Company as of December 31, 2013 is presented as noncontrolling interest in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. In March 2014, one of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries acquired from a third party the remaining 50% ownership interest of GRLP. Because the Company was the primary beneficiary and consolidated GRLP, the acquisition of additional ownership interest was recorded as an equity transaction with no gain or loss recognized. Additionally, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, GRLP is no longer considered a VIE for reporting purposes.

Prior to the Company’s acquisition of the remaining ownership of GRLP in March 2014, GRLP’s assets could only be used to settle its own obligations and not other obligations of the Company and GRLP’s creditors had no recourse to the general credit of the Company. At December 31, 2013, $0.7 million of noncontrolling interest in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet was related to GRLP. GRLP’s assets and liabilities, after considering the effects of intercompany eliminations, included in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2013 consisted of the following (in thousands):



	December 31, 2013
Cash and cash equivalents	$	132
Accounts receivable, net	16
Prepaid expenses	32
Other current assets	109
Total current assets	289
Other property, plant and equipment, net	1,163
Total assets	$	1,452

Accounts payable and accrued expenses	$	129
Total liabilities	$	129

Grey Ranch Plant Genpar, LLC. As of December 31, 2013, the Company owned a 50% interest in Grey Ranch Plant Genpar, LLC (“Genpar”), the managing partner and 1% owner of GRLP. The Company served as Genpar’s administrative manager. Genpar’s ownership interest in GRLP was its only asset. As managing partner of GRLP, Genpar had the sole right to manage, control and conduct the business of GRLP. However, Genpar was restricted from making certain major decisions, including the decision to remove the Company as operator of the Plant. The rights afforded the Company under the Plant operating agreement and the restrictions on Genpar limited Genpar’s ability to make decisions on behalf of GRLP. Therefore, Genpar was considered a VIE. Although both the Company and Genpar’s other equity owner shared equally in Genpar’s economic losses and benefits and also had agreements that may be considered variable interests, the Company determined it was the primary beneficiary of Genpar due to (i) its ability, as administrative manager and operator of the Plant, to direct the activities of Genpar that most significantly impact its economic performance and (ii) its obligation or right, as operator of the Plant, to absorb the losses of or receive benefits from Genpar that could potentially be significant to Genpar. As the primary beneficiary, the Company consolidated Genpar’s activity. However, its sole asset, the investment in GRLP, was eliminated in consolidation. Genpar had no liabilities. In March 2014, one of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries acquired from a third party the remaining 50% ownership interest of Genpar. Because the Company was the primary beneficiary and consolidated Genpar, the acquisition of additional ownership interest was recorded as an equity transaction with no gain or loss recognized. Additionally, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, Genpar is no longer considered a VIE for reporting purposes.

Piñon Gathering Company, LLC. The Company has a gas gathering and operations and maintenance agreement with Piñon Gathering Company, LLC (“PGC”) through June 30, 2029. Under the gas gathering agreement, the Company is required to compensate PGC for any throughput shortfalls below a required minimum volume. By guaranteeing a minimum throughput, the Company absorbs the risk that lower than projected volumes will be gathered by the gathering system. Therefore, PGC is a VIE. Other than as required under the gas gathering and operations and maintenance agreements, the Company has not provided any support to PGC. While the Company operates the assets of PGC as directed under the operations and management agreement, the member and managers of PGC have the authority to directly control PGC and make substantive decisions regarding PGC’s activities including terminating the Company as operator without cause. As the Company does not have the ability to control the activities of PGC that most significantly impact PGC’s economic performance, the Company is not the primary beneficiary of PGC and does not consolidate the results of PGC’s activities into the its financial statements.

Amounts due from and due to PGC as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013 included in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets are as follows (in thousands):



	March 31, 2014		December 31, 2013
Accounts receivable due from PGC	$	1,050	$	741
Accounts payable due to PGC	$	3,827	$	3,634

Notional (MBbls)

Weighted Average
Fixed Price

April 2014 - December 2014

January 2015 - December 2015