COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Minimum Lease Payment Obligations under Operating Leases with Terms of One Year

The following table presents minimum lease payment obligations under our operating leases with terms in excess of one year for the years ending December 31 (in thousands):

	Office Space and Other		Equipment (1)		Land Leases (2)		Total
2012	$	2,443	$	3,487	$	5,672	$	11,602
2013		2,589		3,608		5,799		11,996
2014		2,690		2,093		5,882		10,665
2015		2,768		—		6,006		8,774
2016		2,869		—		6,149		9,018
Thereafter		14,247		—		384,949		399,196
Total	$	27,606	$	9,188	$	414,457	$	451,251

(1) Includes BORCO facility leases for tugboats and a barge in our International Operations segment.

(2) Includes leases the for inland dock and seabed in connection with our operations in the International Operations segment and subsurface underground gas storage rights and surface rights in connection with our operations in the Natural Gas Storage segment. We may cancel these leases if the storage reservoir is not used for underground storage of natural gas or the removal or injection thereof for a continuous period of two consecutive years. Rental expense associated with these leases, which is being recognized on a straight-line basis over 44 years, was approximately $7.1 million, $7.1 million and $7.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. At December 31, 2011 and 2010, the balance of our Natural Gas Storage segment deferred lease liability increased by $4.1 million and $4.2 million, respectively, to $17.5 million and $13.3 million, respectively in the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010. We estimate that the deferred lease liability will continue to increase through 2032, at which time our deferred lease liability is estimated to be approximately $64.7 million. Our deferred lease liability will then be reduced over the remaining 19 years of the lease, since the expected annual lease payments will exceed the amount of lease expense.

Future Minimum Lease Payments to be Received under Operating Leasing Arrangements

Future minimum lease payments to be received under such operating leasing arrangements are as follows (in thousands):

	Years Ending December 31,
2012	$	136,877
2013		82,507
2014		17,371
2015		16,782
2016		16,309
Thereafter		72,855
Total	$	342,701