Asset Retirement Obligations

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Asset Retirement Obligation Disclosure [Abstract]

Asset retirement obligations

We record the fair value of a liability for an asset retirement obligation in the period in which it is incurred and a corresponding increase in the carrying amount of oil and natural gas properties. The accretion of the asset retirement obligation is included in depreciation, depletion, and amortization on the consolidated statements of operations. The following table provides a summary of our asset retirement obligation activity during the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011.



	For the three months ended March 31,
	2012			2011
Beginning balance	$	46,493		$	41,695
Liabilities incurred in current period	20			159
Liabilities settled in current period	(254		)	(550		)
Accretion expense	974			874
	47,233			42,178
Less current portion	2,900			690
	$	44,333		$	41,488

See Note 5 for additional information regarding fair value measurements.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for an asset retirement obligation and the associated long-lived asset. An asset retirement obligation is a legal obligation associated with the disposal or retirement from service of a tangible long-lived asset that results from the acquisition, construction or development, or the normal operations of a long-lived asset, except for certain obligations of lessees.

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