Organization And Basis Of Presentation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Organization And Basis Of Presentation [Abstract]

Organization And Basis Of Presentation

Note 1 — Organization and Basis of Presentation

Organization

ATP Oil & Gas Corporation ("the Company") was incorporated in Texas in 1991. ATP Oil & Gas Corporation is engaged internationally in the acquisition, development and production of oil and natural gas properties. Our management team has extensive engineering, geological, geophysical, technical and operational expertise in developing and operating properties in both our current and planned areas of operation. In the Gulf of Mexico and in the U.K. sector of the North Sea (the "North Sea"), we seek to acquire and develop properties with proved undeveloped reserves ("PUD") that are economically attractive to us but are not strategic to major or large independent exploration-oriented oil and gas companies. Occasionally we will acquire properties that are already producing or where previous drilling has encountered reservoirs that appear to contain commercially productive quantities of oil and gas even though the reservoirs do not meet the SEC definition of proved reserves. In the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea, we believe that our strategy provides assets for us to develop and produce with an attractive risk profile at a competitive cost.

During 2011, we acquired three licenses in the Mediterranean Sea covering potential natural gas resources in the deepwater off the coast of Israel. In the Mediterranean Sea our licenses relate to exploratory prospects where drilling has occurred nearby and hydrocarbons have been discovered by others. Our initial significant capital investment in the Mediterranean Sea is expected to be in the first half of 2012 when drilling exploration begins for one of these three licenses.

Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements include our accounts, the accounts of our majority-owned limited partnership, ATP Infrastructure Partners, L.P. ("ATP-IP") and those of our wholly-owned subsidiaries; ATP Oil & Gas (UK) Limited, or "ATP (UK);" ATP Oil & Gas (Netherlands) B.V.; ATP Energy, Inc., ATP Titan LLC, four wholly owned limited liability companies created to own our interests in ATP-IP and ATP Titan LLC and four other wholly owned limited liability companies formed related to our operations in the Mediterranean Sea. All intercompany transactions are eliminated in consolidation. We have reclassified certain amounts applicable to prior periods to conform to current classifications. These reclassifications do not affect earnings.