We are the subject of, or party to, a number of pending or threatened legal actions and administrative proceedings or investigations arising in the ordinary course of our business including, but not limited to, royalty claims, contract claims and environmental claims. While many of these matters involve inherent uncertainty, we believe that the amount of the liability, if any, ultimately incurred with respect to proceedings or claims will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position as a whole or on our liquidity, capital resources or future annual results of operations.

When deemed necessary, we establish reserves for certain legal proceedings. The establishment of a reserve is based on an estimation process that includes the advice of legal counsel and subjective judgment of management. While management believes these reserves to be adequate, it is reasonably possible we could incur additional losses with respect to those matters in which reserves have been established. We will continue to evaluate our litigation on a quarterly basis and will establish and adjust any litigation reserves as appropriate to reflect our assessment of the then current status of litigation.

We have incurred and will continue to incur capital, operating and remediation expenditures as a result of environmental laws and regulations. As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, liabilities for remediation were not material. We are not aware of any environmental claims existing as of December 31, 2024 that have not been provided for or would otherwise have a material impact on our financial position or results of operations. Environmental liabilities normally involve estimates that are subject to revision until final resolution, settlement or remediation occurs. We believe that substantially all of our competitors must comply with similar environmental laws and regulations.

Certain contractual obligations were retained by us after our divestiture of our North Louisiana assets in 2020. These obligations are primarily related to gathering, processing and transportation agreements including certain minimum volume commitments. For additional information see Note 14.

The components of our total lease expense for the two years ended December 31, 2024, the majority of which is included as part of natural gas and oil properties on our consolidated balance sheets, are as follows (in thousands):


	Year Ended December 31,
	2024			2023
Operating lease cost	$	90,170		$	70,781
Variable lease expense (1)		8,942			25,529
Short-term lease expense (2)		649			708
Sublease income		(103	)		—
Total lease expense	$	99,658		$	97,018

Short-term lease costs (3)	$	10,478		$	14,032


(1)	Variable lease payments that are not dependent on an index or rate and are not included in the lease liability or ROU assets.
(2)	Short-term lease expense represents expense related to leases with a contract term of one year or less and are not included in our ROU assets or lease liability in our consolidated balance sheets.
(3)	These short-term lease costs are related to leases with a contract term of one year or less, the majority of which are related to drilling rigs which are capitalized as part of natural gas and oil properties on our consolidated balance sheets and may fluctuate based on the number of drilling rigs being utilized.

Supplemental cash flow information related to our operating leases is included in the table below (in thousands):


	Year Ended December 31,
	2024		2023
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities	$	93,137	$	71,669
ROU assets added in exchange for lease obligations	$	180,342	$	7,421

Our weighted average remaining lease term and weighted average discount rate for our operating leases are as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2024	2023
Weighted average remaining lease term	3.7 years	2.9 years
Weighted average discount rate	6%	7%

Our lease liabilities with enforceable contract terms that are greater than one year mature as follows (in thousands):


	Operating Leases
2025	$	91,776
2026		7,540
2027		6,141
2028		3,241
2029		3,291
Thereafter		25,122
Total lease payments		137,111
Less effects of discounting		(14,236	)
Total lease liability	$	122,875

We have entered into firm transportation and gathering contracts with various pipeline carriers for the future transportation and gathering of natural gas, NGLs and oil production. Under these contracts, we are obligated to transport or gather minimum daily natural gas volumes or pay for any deficiencies at a specified reservation fee rate. Our production committed to these pipelines is currently expected to exceed the minimum daily volumes provided in the contracts. However, if in the future we fail to deliver the committed volumes, we would recognize a deficiency payment in the period in which the under-delivery takes place and the related liability has been incurred. In the information below we have not considered any potential future renewals, although at times we will renew these agreements. As of December 31, 2024, future minimum transportation and gathering fees under our commitments are as follows (in thousands):


	Transportation and Gathering Contracts (a)
2025	$	835,018
2026		815,463
2027		794,968
2028		777,578
2029		668,391
Thereafter		2,691,096
	$	6,582,514


(a)	The amounts in this table represent the gross amounts that we are committed to pay; however, we will record in our financial statements our proportionate share of costs based on our working interest which can vary based on volumes produced.

We have also entered into amendments that are not in the above table, but modify existing contracts and are contingent on additional facility construction which is expected to be complete in 2026. The amendments will expand gathering and processing capacity by 300,000 mcf/day and transportation capacity by 250,000 Mmbtu/day. We will have a contingent related commitment for the de-ethanization capacity associated with this processing expansion. Beginning on the in-service date this capacity will total 40,000 bbl/day, increasing by 5,000 bbls/day after one year of service, and continues through the end of the agreement. We also entered into a new contract for propane export terminal capacity that is contingent on the construction of the relevant facilities and is expected to be in service in 2026. This capacity will be 10,000 bbls/day for the first year and increases to 20,000 bbls/day for the remainder of the term.

We have various volume delivery commitments that we expect to be able to fulfill from our own production; however, we may purchase third-party volumes to satisfy our commitments or pay demand fees for commitment shortfalls, should they occur. In the information below we have not considered any potential future renewals, although at times we will renew these agreements. As of December 31, 2024, our delivery commitments through 2037 were as follows:


Year Ending December 31,	Natural Gas (Mmbtu per day)	Ethane and Propane (bbls per day)
2025	338,123	50,000
2026	243,739	50,000
2027	108,630	46,233
2028	100,000	45,000
2029	100,000	33,444
2030	—	30,000
2031	—	16,575
2032	—	10,000
2033-2037	—	10,000 (each year)

We have lease acreage that is generally subject to expiration if initial wells are not drilled within a specified period, generally between three and five years. We do not expect to lose significant lease acreage because of failure to drill due to inadequate capital, equipment or personnel. However, based on our evaluation of prospective economics, including the cost of infrastructure to connect production, we have allowed acreage to expire and will allow additional acreage to expire in the future. To date, our expenditures to comply with environmental or safety regulations have not been a significant component of our cost structure and are not expected to