7.  Derivative Financial Instruments

Our market risk exposure relates primarily to commodity prices and, from time to time, we use various derivative instruments to manage our exposure to this commodity price risk from sales of our crude oil and natural gas.  Some of the derivative counterparties are also lenders or affiliates of lenders participating in our Prior Credit Agreement.  We are exposed to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the derivative counterparties; however, we currently anticipate that each of our derivative counterparties will be able to fulfill their contractual obligations.  Additional collateral is not required by us due to the derivative counterparties’ collateral rights as lenders, and we do not require collateral from our derivative counterparties.

We have elected not to designate our commodity derivative contracts as hedging instruments; therefore, all changes in the fair value of derivative contracts were recognized currently in earnings during the periods presented.  The cash flows of all of our commodity derivative contracts are included in Net cash provided by operating activities on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

During the second quarter of 2018, we entered into crude oil derivative contracts which relate to a portion of our expected crude oil production from May 2018 to December 2018.  The crude oil contracts are based on West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) crude oil prices as quoted off the New York Mercantile Exchange (“NYMEX”).  During the first quarter of 2017, we entered into commodity contracts for crude oil and natural gas, all of which had expired as of December 31, 2017.

As of September 30, 2018, our open crude oil derivative contracts were as follows:  

The swap and two-way collars were “cost-less” contracts, in that no premiums were paid or received.  For the put option contract, the $2.1 million premium is being amortized over the life of the contract and recorded in Prepaid and other assets on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.  See Note 1, Basis of Presentation.

Our open and closed (not settled) commodity derivative contracts were recorded within the line Accrued liabilities on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet summarized in the following table (in thousands):

Changes in the fair value and settlements of our commodity derivative contracts were as follows (in thousands):

Cash receipts (payments), net, on commodity derivative closed contracts are included within Net cash provided by operating activities on the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows and were as follows (in thousands):

Offsetting Commodity Derivatives

All our commodity derivative contracts permit netting of derivative gains and losses upon settlement.  In general, the terms of the contracts provide for offsetting of amounts payable or receivable between us and the counterparty, at the election of both parties, for transactions that occur on the same date and in the same commodity.  If an event of default were to occur causing an acceleration of payment under our Prior Credit Agreement, that event may also trigger an acceleration of settlement of some of our derivative instruments.  If we were required to settle all of our open derivative contracts, we would be able to net payments and receipts per counterparty pursuant to the derivative contracts.  Although our derivative contracts allow for netting, which would allow for recording assets and liabilities per counterparty on a net basis, we have historically accounted for our derivative contracts on a gross basis per contract as either an asset or liability.  As of September 30, 2018, there would have been no difference in the presentation of our commodity derivatives on a gross or net basis.