Risk Management

We are exposed to certain market risks related to our ongoing business operations. These risks include exposure to changing commodity prices. We utilize derivative instruments to manage our exposure to fluctuations in commodity prices, which is discussed below. Additional information related to our derivatives is discussed in Note 6.

Commodity Derivative Instruments and Price Risk Management

Risk Management Activities

We sell NGLs and crude oil to energy related businesses and may use a variety of financial and other instruments including forward contracts involving physical delivery of NGLs, heating oil and crude oil. We periodically enter into offsetting positions to economically hedge against the exposure our customer contracts create. Certain of these contracts and positions are derivative instruments. We do not designate any of our commodity-based derivatives as hedging instruments for accounting purposes. Our commodity-based derivatives are reflected at fair value in the consolidated balance sheets, and changes in the fair value of these derivatives that impact the consolidated statements of operations are reflected in costs of product/services sold. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, the impact to our consolidated statements of operations related to our commodity-based derivatives reflected in costs of product/services sold was a loss of $24.1 million and $22.6 million. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, the impact to the statement of operations related to our commodity-based derivatives reflected in costs of product/services sold was a gain of $2.1 million and $4.1 million. We attempt to balance our contractual portfolio in terms of notional amounts and timing of performance and delivery obligations. This balance in the contractual portfolio significantly reduces the volatility in costs of product/services sold related to these instruments.

Commodity Price and Credit Risk

Notional Amounts and Terms

The notional amounts and terms of our derivative financial instruments include the following:



	September 30, 2017		December 31, 2016
	Fixed Price Payor	Fixed Price Receiver	Fixed Price Payor	Fixed Price Receiver
Propane, crude and heating oil (MMBbls)	19.7	22.7	13.1	15.1
Natural gas (MMBTU’s)	0.9	0.6	—	—

Notional amounts reflect the volume of transactions, but do not represent the amounts exchanged by the parties to the financial instruments. Accordingly, notional amounts do not reflect our monetary exposure to market or credit risks.

All contracts subject to price risk had a maturity of 35 months or less; however, 87% of the contracted volumes will be delivered or settled within 12 months.

Credit Risk

Inherent in our contractual portfolio are certain credit risks. Credit risk is the risk of loss from nonperformance by suppliers, customers or financial counterparties to a contract. We take an active role in managing credit risk and have established control procedures, which are reviewed on an ongoing basis. We attempt to minimize credit risk exposure through credit policies and periodic monitoring procedures as well as through customer deposits, letters of credit and entering into netting agreements that allow for offsetting counterparty receivable and payable balances for certain financial transactions, as deemed appropriate. The counterparties associated with our price risk management activities are primarily energy marketers and propane retailers, resellers and dealers.

Certain of our derivative instruments have credit limits that require us to post collateral. The amount of collateral required to be posted is a function of the net liability position of the derivative as well as our established credit limit with the respective counterparty. If our credit rating were to change, the counterparties could require us to post additional collateral. The amount of additional collateral that would be required to be posted would vary depending on the extent of change in our credit rating as well as the requirements of the individual counterparty. The aggregate fair value of all commodity derivative instruments with credit-risk-related contingent features that were in a liability position at September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 was $30.1 million and $13.9 million. At September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we posted less than $0.1 million of collateral for our commodity derivative instruments with credit-risk-related contingent features. In addition, at September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we had a New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) related net derivative asset position of $30.7 million and $14.3 million, for which we posted $25.2 million and $4.2 million of cash collateral in the normal course of business. At September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we also received collateral of $5.7 million and $4.3 million in the normal course of business. All collateral amounts have been netted against the asset or liability with the respective counterparty and are reflected in our consolidated balance sheets as assets and liabilities from price risk management activities.