7. Property and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Property and equipment:

Property and Equipment

Property and equipment December 31, 2015 and 2014, consisted of the following:

	December 31,
	2015			2014
Oil and natural gas properties, full cost method:
Evaluated costs	$	131,168,906		$	112,418,105
Unevaluated costs, not subject to amortization or ceiling test		10,394			591,121
		131,179,300			113,009,226
Other property and equipment		139,004			139,004
		131,318,304			113,148,230
Less: Accumulated depreciation, amortization, depletion and impairments		(99,468,927	)		(18,902,524	)
Total property and equipment, net	$	31,849,377		$	94,245,706

The following table shows depreciation, depletion and amortization expense by type of asset:

	Years Ended
	December 31,
	2015		2014
Depletion of costs for evaluated oil and natural gas properties	$	9,278,108	$	9,359,952
Depreciation and amortization of other property and equipment		16,295		29,138
Total depreciation, amortization and depletion	$	9,294,403	$	9,389,090

Impairment of Oil and Gas Properties

As a result of currently prevailing low commodity prices and their effect on the proved reserve values of properties in 2015, we recorded non-cash ceiling test impairments of $71,272,000 for the year ended December 31, 2015. The Company did not have any impairment of its proved oil and gas properties for the year ended December 31, 2014. The impairment charges affected our reported net income but did not reduce our cash flow. Continued write downs of oil and natural gas properties are expected to occur until such time as commodity prices have recovered, and remain at recovered levels, so as to meaningfully increase the trailing 12-month average price used in the ceiling calculation. In addition to commodity prices, our production rates, levels of proved reserves, future development costs, transfers of unevaluated properties and other factors will determine our actual ceiling test calculation and impairment analyses in future periods.