Asset Retirement Obligations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

9. Asset Retirement Obligations

For the Company, asset retirement obligations ("AROs") represent the future abandonment costs of tangible assets, such as wells, service assets and other facilities. The fair value of the asset retirement obligation at inception is capitalized as part of the carrying amount of the related long-lived asset. Asset retirement obligations approximated $14.2 million and $18.7 million as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. At December 31, 2016 and 2015, all asset retirement obligations represent long-term liabilities and are classified as such.

The following table details the change in the asset retirement obligations for the Successor Period and the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively (in thousands):


	Successor		Predecessor
	Successor		Predecessor
	For the Period October 21, 2016 through December 31, 2016		For the Years Ended December 31,


			2015			2014
			2015			2014
Asset retirement obligations at beginning of period	$	13,983	$	21,599		$	26,308
Liabilities incurred		7		127			996
Revisions(1)		—		570			288
Liabilities settled		—		(279	)		(47	)
Liabilities eliminated through asset sale(2)		—		(4,919	)		(7,652	)
Current period accretion expense		210		1,610			1,706

Asset retirement obligations at end of year	$	14,200	$	18,708		$	21,599


(1)	Revisions during the year ended December 31, 2015 were the result of updates to the estimated abandonment dates of various wells. Revisions during the year ended December 31, 2014 were due primarily to an increase in estimated future abandonment costs based upon higher costs for oilfield services and materials in the Mississippian Lime and Anadarko Basin areas.
(2)	Liabilities eliminated through asset sales for the year ended December 31, 2015 is primarily related to the Dequincy Divestiture. Liabilities eliminated through asset sales for the year ended December 31, 2014 were related to the Pine Prairie Disposition. See discussion of the Dequincy Divestiture and Pine Prairie Disposition in "—Note 8. Acquisition and Divestitures of Oil and Gas Properties".