In August 2020, we sold our North Louisiana assets and retained certain gathering, transportation and processing obligations which extend into 2030. These are contracts where we will not realize any future benefit. The estimated obligations are included in current and long-term divestiture contract obligation in our consolidated balance sheet. In first quarter 2021, we recorded accretion expense of $13.0 million. The estimated discounted divestiture contract obligation was $471.9 million at March 31, 2021.

In second quarter 2020, we negotiated capacity releases on certain transportation pipelines in Pennsylvania effective May 31, 2020 and extending through the remainder of the contract. The estimated remaining discounted obligation for these transportation capacity releases as of March 31, 2021 was $9.0 million.

In first quarter 2020, we completed the sale of our shallow legacy assets in northwestern Pennsylvania and we recorded $1.6 million of severance costs in first quarter 2020 which are primarily related to the sale of these assets. The following summarizes our exit and termination costs for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Severance costs	$	509	$	1,595
Transportation contract capacity releases (including accretion of discount)		210		—
Divestiture contract obligation (including accretion of discount)		12,995		—
	$	13,714	$	1,595

The following details the accrued exit and termination cost liability activity for the three months ended March 31, 2021 (in thousands):


	Exit Costs ⁽¹⁾			Termination Costs
Balance at December 31, 2020	$	493,543		$	1,454
Accrued severance costs		—			509
Accretion of discount		13,205			—
Payments		(25,848	)		(1,432	)
Balance at March 31, 2021	$	480,900		$	531

⁽¹⁾ Includes the divestiture contract obligation and the capacity release obligation.