Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Legal Proceedings

Linde Lawsuit. On December 23, 2019, Linde Engineering North America Inc. (Linde) filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Harris County, Texas alleging that Arrow Field Services, LLC, our consolidated subsidiary, and Crestwood Midstream breached a contract entered into in March 2018 under which Linde was to provide engineering, procurement and construction services to us related to the completion of the construction of the Bear Den II cryogenic processing plant. Linde claims damages of $55 million in unpaid invoices and other damages. This matter is not an insurable event based on our insurance policies, and we are unable to predict the outcome for this matter.

General. We are periodically involved in litigation proceedings. If we determine that a negative outcome is probable and the amount of loss is reasonably estimable, then we accrue the estimated amount. The results of litigation proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty. We could incur judgments, enter into settlements or revise our expectations regarding the outcome of certain matters, and such developments could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or cash flows in the period in which the amounts are paid and/or accrued. As of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we had approximately $10.9 million and $10.7 million accrued for outstanding legal matters. Based on currently available information, we believe it is remote that future costs related to known contingent liability exposures for which we can estimate will exceed current accruals by an amount that would have a material adverse impact on our consolidated financial statements. As we learn new facts concerning contingencies, we reassess our position both with respect to accrued liabilities and other potential exposures.

Any loss estimates are inherently subjective, based on currently available information, and are subject to management’s judgment and various assumptions. Due to the inherently subjective nature of these estimates and the uncertainty and unpredictability surrounding the outcome of legal proceedings, actual results may differ materially from any amounts that have been accrued.

Regulatory Compliance

In the ordinary course of our business, we are subject to various laws and regulations. In the opinion of our management, compliance with current laws and regulations will not have a material effect on our results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

Environmental Compliance

Our operations are subject to stringent and complex laws and regulations pertaining to worker health, safety, and the environment. We are subject to laws and regulations at the federal, state, regional and local levels that relate to air and water quality, hazardous and solid waste management and disposal, and other environmental matters. The cost of planning, designing, constructing and operating our facilities must incorporate compliance with environmental laws and regulations and safety standards. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations may trigger a variety of administrative, civil and potentially criminal enforcement measures.

During 2014, we experienced three releases totaling approximately 28,000 barrels of produced water on our Arrow water gathering system located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. We immediately notified the National Response Center, the Three Affiliated Tribes and numerous other regulatory authorities. Thereafter, we contained and cleaned up the releases, and placed the impacted segments of these water lines back into service. In May 2015, we experienced a release of approximately 5,200 barrels of produced water on our Arrow water gathering system, immediately notified numerous regulatory authorities and other third parties, and thereafter contained and cleaned up the releases.

In August 2015, we received a notice of violation from the Three Affiliated Tribes’ Environmental Division related to our 2014 produced water releases on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The notice of violation imposes fines and requests reimbursements exceeding $1.1 million; however, the notice of violation was stayed on September 15, 2015. Our discussions regarding the notice of violation continue with the Three Affiliated Tribes.

During September 2019, we experienced two produced water releases totaling approximately 5,000 barrels on our Arrow system located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. We immediately notified the National Response Center, the State of North Dakota, the Three Affiliated Tribes, affected landowners and numerous other regulatory authorities. We are substantially complete with the remediation efforts and continue to monitor the impact of both spills.

In response to the water releases on our Arrow system, we removed approximately 30 miles of water gathering pipeline from service. In addition, we are currently in the process of replacing certain sections of our water gathering pipeline with pipeline composed of higher capacity material that is more suitable to the environment and climate conditions in the Bakken, which will increase water gathering capacity on the Arrow system and further our commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship in the areas where we live and operate.

We will continue our remediation efforts to ensure the impacted lands are restored to their prior state. We believe these releases are insurable events under our policies, and we have notified our carriers of these events. We have not recorded an insurance receivable as of March 31, 2020.

At March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, our accrual of approximately $4.3 million and $6.7 million was based on our undiscounted estimate of amounts we will spend on compliance with environmental and other regulations, and any associated fines or penalties. We estimate that our potential liability for reasonably possible outcomes related to our environmental exposures could range from approximately $4.3 million to $8.5 million at March 31, 2020.

Self-Insurance

We utilize third-party insurance subject to varying retention levels of self-insurance, which management considers prudent. Such self-insurance relates to losses and liabilities primarily associated with medical claims, workers’ compensation claims and general, product, vehicle and environmental liability. Losses are accrued based upon management’s estimates of the aggregate liability for claims incurred using certain assumptions followed in the insurance industry and based on past experience. The primary assumption utilized is actuarially determined loss development factors. The loss development factors are based primarily on historical data. Our self insurance reserves could be affected if future claim developments differ from the historical trends. We believe changes in health care costs, trends in health care claims of our employee base, accident frequency and severity and other factors could materially affect the estimate for these liabilities. We continually monitor changes in employee demographics, incident and claim type and evaluate our insurance accruals and adjust our accruals based on our evaluation of these qualitative data points. We are liable for the development of claims for our disposed retail propane operations, provided they were reported prior to August 1, 2012. The following table summarizes CEQP’s and CMLP’s self-insurance reserves at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 (in millions):



	CEQP				CMLP
	March 31, 2020		December 31, 2019		March 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
Self-insurance reserves⁽¹⁾	$	9.7	$	9.7	$	8.5	$	8.3


(1)	At March 31, 2020, CEQP and CMLP classified approximately $6.2 million and $5.2 million, respectively of these reserves as other long-term liabilities on their consolidated balance sheets.

Leases

The following table summarizes the balance sheet information related to our operating and finance leases at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 (in millions):



	March 31,		December 31,
	2020		2019
Operating Leases
Operating lease right-of-use assets, net	$	49.4	$	53.8

Accrued expenses and other liabilities	$	18.6	$	18.1
Long-term operating lease liabilities	36.8		41.5
Total operating lease liabilities	$	55.4	$	59.6
Finance Leases
Property, plant and equipment	$	15.0	$	14.9
Less: accumulated depreciation	6.4		5.4
Property, plant and equipment, net	$	8.6	$	9.5

Accrued expenses and other liabilities	$	3.3	$	3.2
Other long-term liabilities	4.4		5.2
Total finance lease liabilities	$	7.7	$	8.4

Lease expense. Our operating lease expense, net totaled $7.5 million and $7.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019. Our finance lease expense totaled $1.1 million for both the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019.

Guarantees and Indemnifications

We are involved in various joint ventures that sometimes require financial and performance guarantees. In a financial guarantee, we are obligated to make payments if the guaranteed party fails to make payments under, or violates the terms of, the financial arrangement. In a performance guarantee, we provide assurance that the guaranteed party will execute on the terms of the contract. If they do not, we are required to perform on their behalf. We also periodically provide indemnification arrangements related to assets or businesses we have sold. For a further description of our guarantees associated with our joint ventures, see Note 4.

Our potential exposure under guarantee and indemnification arrangements can range from a specified amount to an unlimited dollar amount, depending on the nature of the claim, specificity as to duration, and the particular transaction. As of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we have no amounts accrued for these guarantees.