RESTRUCTURING AND IMPAIRMENT EXPENSE

Restructuring and impairment expense were as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
(In millions)	2015		2014		2015		2014
Restructuring expense	$	17.9	$	—	$	33.8	$	4.9
Impairment expense	60.2		—		64.4		—
Total restructuring and impairment expense	$	78.1	$	—	$	98.2	$	4.9

Restructuring—As a result of market conditions in North America, combined with the impact of lower international activity driven by declining oil prices, beginning in 2015, we initiated a company-wide reduction in workforce intended to reduce costs and better align our workforce with current and anticipated activity levels, which resulted in the recognition of severance costs relating to termination benefits and other restructuring charges.

Asset impairments—During the three months ended September 30, 2015, we completed the reorganization of our reporting unit structure within our Surface Technologies segment. This reorganization was directly aligned with our integration efforts over the last year to bring our North American surface wellhead and completion services businesses together to create our surface integrated services businesses in the US and Canada. As a result of this reorganization, we are required under GAAP to test goodwill of our reporting units. Additionally, we conduct impairment tests on long-lived assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable if it exceeds the sum of the undiscounted cash flows expected to result from the use and eventual disposition over the assets remaining useful life. Our review of recoverability of the carrying value of our assets considers several assumptions including the intended use and service potential of the asset.

The prolonged downturn in the energy market and its corresponding impact on our business outlook led us to conclude the carrying amount of a number of our long-lived assets in our surface integrated services business in Canada, and related goodwill exceeded their fair values. The low commodity price environment’s impact on our outlook for revenue growth and profitability of our surface integrated services business in Canada led us to record impairment charges of $56.6 million in our Surface Technologies segment during the three months ended September 30, 2015. These impairment charges included charges against customer relationship intangible assets, wireline and flowback assets, and related goodwill in Canada.