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11. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 12 – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

 

Office Lease

 

In July 2012, the Company entered into a non-cancelable lease agreement with a term of two years ending in July 2014 for its corporate office space located in Danville, California. The obligation under this lease as of June 30, 2013 is $53,833.

 

Expired Leases in Oil & Gas Properties

 

The Company’s oil and gas leasehold acreage is subject to expiration of leases if the Company does not drill and hold such acreage by production. In the Niobrara Asset, 1,077 net acres are due to expire in 2013 (226 net acres did expire during the six month period ended June 30, 2013), 342 net acres expire in 2014, 127 net acres expire in 2015 and 309 net acres expire thereafter. The Company plans to hold significantly all of this acreage through an active program of drilling and completing producing wells. Where the Company is not able to drill a well before lease expiration the Company will seek to extend leases where able. All “net” acreage reflects our acreage held directly and the Company’s 20% proportionate share of acreage held by Condor by virtue of the Company’s 20% ownership interest in Condor. In the Eagle Ford Asset, the balance of our 26 net acres not held by production will expire in 2013. However, the Company anticipates that none of our Eagle Ford acreage will expire in 2013 or thereafter as the Company anticipates that (i) the operator of our Eagle Ford Asset, Sundance Energy, Inc. (formerly Texon Petroleum Limited), will continue to complete wells in which the Company plans to participate in order to hold these leases, (ii) the third party operator with rights to the shallow depths will continue to complete wells that will hold these leases, and (iii) if required to hold leases, the Company may seek to sole risk drilling and completion of wells on the asset.

 

Drilling Commitments

 

The Mississippian acquisition is structured as a primary term assignment by the seller to PEDCO MSL of the leasehold interests which expires on December 29, 2014. If PEDCO MSL drills at least three (3) horizontal wells on these leasehold interests during this primary term, then PEDCO MSL has the option, in its sole discretion, to extend the primary term with respect to some or all of the leases subject to the assignment for an additional one (1) year period upon payment to the seller of an additional $200 per net acre covered by the leases upon which the option is exercised. If PEDCO MSL completes a commercially producing well during the primary or extended terms, then the seller shall assign such leases to PEDCO MSL for as long as the wells produce in paying quantities, with each horizontal well of at least 4,000 feet in length holding 320 acres covered by the leases, each short horizontal well with a length of between less than 4,000 feet and at least 2,000 feet in length holding 160 acres, and each vertical well holding 10 acres. The seller shall retain an overriding royalty interest equal to the positive difference, if any, obtained by subtracting existing leasehold burdens from 22.5% before payout and 25% after payout (reduced to the extent the seller assigns less than a 100% working interest to PEDCO MSL). For purposes of the Mississippian agreement, “payout” is defined as such time, on a well by well basis, when a well has sold the following specified barrels of oil equivalent (“BOE”), (utilizing a conversion factor for gas sales of 8 Mcf per 1 barrel of oil): for a vertical well, ten thousand (10,000) BOE; for a short horizontal well: twenty-five thousand (25,000) BOE; and for a horizontal well: fifty thousand (50,000) BOE.

 

Other Commitments

 

The Company is not aware of any pending or threatened legal proceedings. The foregoing is also true with respect to each officer, director and control shareholder as well as any entity owned by any officer, director and control shareholder, over the last ten years.

 

As part of its regular operations, the Company may become party to various pending or threatened claims, lawsuits and administrative proceedings seeking damages or other remedies concerning its’ commercial operations, products, employees and other matters. Although the Company can give no assurance about the outcome of these or any other pending legal and administrative proceedings and the effect such outcomes may have on the Company, except as described above, the Company believes that any ultimate liability resulting from the outcome of such proceedings, to the extent not otherwise provided for or covered by insurance, will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

 

The Company’s board of directors has adopted a compensation program that, effective for periods after 2012, will provide each of the Company’s “independent” directors as defined in NYSE MKT rules or under Rule 10A-3 of the Exchange Act with compensation consisting of (a) a quarterly cash payment of $5,000, and (b) an annual equity award consisting of shares of restricted stock valued at $60,000, vesting on the date that is one year following the date of grant. The Company currently has no “independent” directors.