Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Derivative Financial Instruments

v2.4.0.6
Derivative Financial Instruments
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2012
Derivative Financial Instruments

5. Derivative Financial Instruments

Our market risk exposure relates primarily to commodity prices and interest rates. From time to time, we use various derivative instruments to manage our exposure to commodity price risk from sales of oil and natural gas and interest rate risk from floating interest rates on our revolving bank credit facility. We do not enter into derivative instruments for speculative trading purposes. Our derivative instruments currently consist of crude oil swap and option contracts. We are exposed to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the counterparties (Natixis; ING Capital Markets, LLC-EDP; the Toronto Dominion Bank; and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.); however, we do not currently anticipate any of our counterparties being unable to fulfill their contractual obligations.

We account for derivative contracts in accordance with GAAP, which requires each derivative to be recorded on the balance sheet as an asset or a liability at its fair value. Changes in a derivative’s fair value are required to be recognized currently in earnings unless specific hedge accounting criteria are met at the time we enter into a derivative contract. We have elected not to designate our commodity derivatives as hedging instruments. For additional information about fair value measurements, refer to Note 7.

Commodity Derivatives. We have entered into commodity option contracts to manage a portion of our exposure to commodity price risk from sales of oil through December 2014. While these contracts are intended to reduce the effects of price volatility, they may also limit future income from favorable price movements. During the six months ended June 30, 2012 and 2011, our derivative contracts consisted entirely of crude oil contracts. The zero cost collars are priced off the West Texas Intermediate crude oil price quoted on the New York Mercantile Exchange, known as NYMEX, and the swaps are priced off the Brent crude oil price quoted on the IntercontinentalExchange, known as ICE.

 

As of June 30, 2012, our open commodity derivatives were as follows:

 

Zero Cost Collars – Oil (NYMEX)

 

Termination Period

   Notional
Quantity (Bbls)
     Weighted Average
Contract Price
     Fair Value
Asset
(in thousands)
 
      Floor      Ceiling     

2012:     3rd quarter    

     124,000       $ 75.00       $ 97.88       $ 6   

4th quarter    

     251,000         75.00         98.99         68   
  

 

 

          

 

 

 
     375,000       $ 75.00       $ 98.62       $ 74   
  

 

 

          

 

 

 

 

Swaps – Oil (ICE)

 

Termination Period

   Notional
Quantity (Bbls)
     Weighted
Average

Contract  Price
     Fair Value
Asset
(in thousands)
 

2012:     3rd quarter    

     414,000       $ 107.28       $ 3,860   

                4th quarter    

     257,600         107.28         2,405   

2013:      1st quarter    

     351,000         101.97         1,446   

                2nd quarter    

     336,700         101.97         1,403   

                3rd quarter    

     312,800         101.98         1,396   

                4th quarter    

     294,400         101.98         1,447   

2014:      1st quarter    

     180,000         97.38         177   

                2nd quarter    

     172,900         97.38         257   

                3rd quarter    

     165,600         97.38         338   

                4th quarter    

     156,400         97.37         407   
  

 

 

       

 

 

 
     2,641,400       $ 102.15       $ 13,136   
  

 

 

       

 

 

 

The following balance sheet line items included amounts related to the estimated fair value of our derivative contracts as indicated in the following table (in thousands):

 

     June 30,
2012
     December 31,
2011
 

Prepaid and other assets

   $     9,188       $     2,341   

Other assets

     4,022         1,746   

Accrued liabilities

     —           7,199   

 

Changes in the fair value of our derivative contracts are recognized currently in earnings and were as follows (in thousands):

 

     Three Months Ended
June 30,
    Six Months Ended
June 30,
 
     2012     2011     2012     2011  

Derivative (gain) loss:

        

Realized

   $ 285      $ 6,099      $ 6,084      $ 8,322   

Unrealized

     (50,157     (23,431     (16,322     (1,814
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total

   $ (49,872   $ (17,332   $ (10,238   $ 6,508