(15)	Commitments and Contingencies

Litigation

We are the subject of, or party to, a number of pending or threatened legal actions and claims arising in the ordinary course of our business. 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. 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.

Lease Commitments

We lease certain office space, office equipment, production facilities, compressors and transportation equipment under cancelable and non-cancelable leases. Rent expense under operating leases (including renewable monthly leases) totaled $14.0 million in 2016 compared to $15.9 million in 2015 and $13.3 million in 2014. Commitments related to these lease payments are not recorded in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Future minimum rental commitments under non-cancelable leases having remaining lease terms in excess of one year are as follows (in thousands):

	Operating Lease Obligations
2017	$	18,407
2018		16,126
2019		13,498
2020		13,088
2021		12,076
Thereafter		40,892
	$	114,087

Transportation and Gathering Contracts

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 from our properties in Pennsylvania and North Louisiana. 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. In most cases, our production committed to these pipelines is expected to exceed the minimum daily volumes provided in the contracts. As part of our purchase price allocation of liabilities that existed at the time of the MRD Merger, we have a liability of $59.2 million for certain expected volume deficiency payments related to our properties in North Louisiana. As of December 31, 2016, future minimum transportation and gathering fees under our commitments are as follows (in thousands):

	Transportation and Gathering Contracts ^(a)
2017	$	705,243
2018		699,863
2019		699,254
2020		635,379
2021		606,797
Thereafter		3,326,015
	$	6,672,551

^(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.

In addition to the amounts included in the above table, we have entered into additional agreements which are contingent on certain pipeline and gathering line modifications and/or construction. These agreements range between fifteen and twenty year terms and may begin in 2017. Based on these contracts, we will have additional transportation obligations for natural gas volumes of 1,300,000 mcf per day through 2032 decreasing to 400,000 mcf per day until 2037. We also have gathering obligations which begin in 2017 of up to 400,000 mcf per day through 2032.

Delivery Commitments

We have various volume delivery commitments that are primarily related to our Marcellus Shale, Oklahoma and North Louisiana areas. We expect to be able to fulfill our contractual obligations 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. As of December 31, 2016, our delivery commitments through 2030 were as follows:

Year Ending December 31,	Natural Gas (mmbtu per day)		Ethane and Propane (bbls per day)
2017		122,578	68,000
2018		170,390	68,000
2019		138,487	52,932
2020		94,111	48,132
2021		66,189	48,000
2022		27,068	43,000
2023—2028		—	35,000
2029—2030		—	20,000

In addition to the amounts included in the above table, we have contracted with a pipeline company through 2020 to deliver ethane production volumes from our Marcellus Shale wells. These agreements and related fees, which are contingent upon pipeline construction and/or modification, are for 10,000 bbls per day starting in 2018. In addition, we have agreements in place to deliver natural gas volumes from our Marcellus Shale wells, which are also contingent upon pipeline construction and/or modification, for 50,000 mcf per day starting in late 2017, increasing to 65,000 mcf per day in late 2018 and 215,000 mcf per day in early 2019.

Other

We also have lease acreage that is generally subject to lease expiration if initial wells are not drilled within a specified period, generally between three to 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, 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 be significant in the future. However, new regulations, enforcement policies, claims for damages or other events could result in significant future costs.