Asset Retirement Obligations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Asset Retirement Obligations [Abstract]

NOTE 7 – ASSET RETIREMENT OBLIGATIONS

We record the estimated asset retirement obligation (“ARO”) as a liability on our consolidated balance sheet and capitalize the cost in the “Oil and natural gas properties, using the full cost method of accounting” or “Other property, plant and equipment” balance sheet captions during the period in which the obligation is incurred. We record the accretion of our ARO liabilities in “Accretion of asset retirement obligations” in our consolidated statements of operations. Payments to settle asset retirement obligations occur over the lives of the oil and natural gas properties and other property, plant and equipment.

Changes in our asset retirement obligations for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 are presented in the following table:


		Nine Months Ended
		September 30, 2014
Beginning of period	$	155,321
Assumed in acquisition		1,475
Divested		(186)
Revisions to previous estimates		1,993
Liabilities incurred		1,434
Liabilities settled		(2,133)
Accretion expense		6,534
End of period	$	164,438
Less: Current portion of asset retirement obligations		(4,895)
Asset retirement obligations - non-current	$	159,543