Derivatives

In early June 2015, the Company began using derivative instruments to reduce its exposure to oil price volatility for a substantial portion of its near-term forecasted production to achieve a more predictable level of cash flows to support the Company’s capital expenditure program and to provide better financial visibility for the payment of dividends on common stock. The costless collars the Company uses to manage risk are designed to establish floor and ceiling prices on anticipated future oil production. While the use of these derivative instruments limits the downside risk of adverse price movements, they may also limit future revenues from favorable price movements. We also use swap agreements in which we exchange our exposure to floating crude spot prices for a fixed price for our production over a period of time.

The Company does not enter into derivative instruments for speculative or trading purposes.

The Company accounts for derivatives under the provisions of ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging under which the Company records the fair value of the instruments on the balance sheet at each reporting date with changes in fair value recognized in income. Given cost and complexity considerations, the Company did not elect to use cash flow hedge accounting provided under ASC 815. Under cash flow hedge accounting, the effective portion of the change in fair value of the derivative instruments would be deferred in other comprehensive income and not recognized in earnings until the underlying hedged item impacts earnings.

These derivative instruments can result in both fair value asset and liability positions held with that counterparty, which positions are all offset to a single fair value asset or liability at the end of each reporting period. The Company nets its fair value amounts of derivative instruments executed with the same counterparty pursuant to ISDA master agreements, which provide for net settlement over the term of the contract and in the event of default or termination of the contract. The fair value derivative instruments where the Company is in a net asset position with its counterparty as of December 31, 2015 totaled $1,323,749. Refer to Note 12—Fair Value Measurement for derivative asset and derivative liability balances before offsetting.

The Company monitors the credit rating of its counterparties and believes it does not have significant credit risk. Accordingly, we do not currently require our counterparties to post collateral to support the net asset positions of our derivative instruments. As such, the Company is exposed to credit risk to the extent of nonperformance by the counterparties to its derivative instruments.

For the six months ended December 31, 2015, the Company recorded in the consolidated statement of operations a gain on derivative instruments of $3,598,351 consisting of a realized gain of $2,164,628 on settled derivatives and an unrealized net gain of $1,433,723 on unsettled derivatives.

The following sets forth a summary of the Company’s crude oil derivative positions at average NYMEX WTI prices as of December 31, 2015.

Subsequent to December 31, 2015, the Company realized a gain of $677,703 on derivative contracts which expired at the end of January 2016. We had previously recorded an unrealized gain of $483,839 on these contracts as of December 31, 2015.

Type of Contract

Volumes (in Bbls./day)

Weighted Average Floor Price per Bbl.

Months of January 2016 through March 2016

Fixed Price Swap