COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES:

Leases

We lease office facilities in Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana, Houston, Texas and New Martinsville and Morgantown, West Virginia under the terms of long-term, non-cancelable leases expiring on various dates through 2021. We also lease certain equipment on our oil and gas properties typically on a month-to-month basis. The minimum net annual commitments under all leases, subleases and contracts with non-cancelable terms in excess of 12 months at December 31, 2015 were as follows:



2016	$	2,022
2017	809
2018	612
2019	453
2020	453
2021	113

Payments related to our lease obligations for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 were approximately $2,076, $966 and $597, respectively.

Other Commitments and Contingencies

We are contingently liable to surety insurance companies in the amount of $223,441 relative to bonds issued on our behalf to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (the “BOEM”), federal and state agencies and certain third parties from which we purchased oil and gas working interests. The bonds represent guarantees by the surety insurance companies that we will operate in accordance with applicable rules and regulations and perform certain plugging and abandonment obligations as specified by applicable working interest purchase and sale agreements.

In connection with our exploration and development efforts, we are contractually committed to the use of drilling rigs and the acquisition of seismic data in the aggregate amount of $185,680 to be incurred over the next 3 years.

The Oil Pollution Act (the “OPA”) imposes ongoing requirements on a responsible party, including the preparation of oil spill response plans and proof of financial responsibility to cover environmental cleanup and restoration costs that could be incurred in connection with an oil spill. Under the OPA and a final rule adopted by the BOEM in August 1998, responsible parties of covered offshore facilities that have a worst case oil spill of more than 1,000 barrels must demonstrate financial responsibility in amounts ranging from at least $10,000 in specified state waters to at least $35,000 in Outer Continental Shelf ("OCS") waters, with higher amounts of up to $150,000 in certain limited circumstances where the BOEM believes such a level is justified by the risks posed by the operations, or if the worst case oil-spill discharge volume possible at the facility may exceed the applicable threshold volumes specified under the BOEM’s final rule. In addition, the BOEM has finalized rules that raise OPA's damages liability cap from $75,000 to $133,650.

In September 2015, the BOEM issued its "Draft Guidance" describing revised supplemental bonding procedures the agency plans to use to impose financial assurance obligations for decommissioning activities on the federal OCS. Once the Draft Guidance is finalized, the BOEM will issue these supplemental bonding changes in a revised Notice to Lessees (" NTL") in replacement of an existing NTL on supplemental bonding that was made effective on August 28, 2008. Among other things, the Draft Guidance proposes to eliminate the “waiver” exemption currently allowed by BOEM, whereby certain operators on the OCS projecting a relatively large net worth and meeting certain other criteria have the option of being exempted from posting bonds or other acceptable assurances for such operator’s decommissioning obligations. Currently, qualifying operators may self-insure to meet supplemental bonding requirements, but only so long as the cumulative decommissioning liability amount being self-insured by the operator is no more than 50% of the operator’s net worth. Under the Draft Guidance, this waiver option would be eliminated and operators would only be able to self-insure for an amount that is no more than 10% of their tangible net worth.

Litigation

We are named as a party in certain lawsuits and regulatory proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. We do not expect that these matters, individually or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition.

On August 2, 2013, Kimmeridge Energy Exploration Fund, L.P. (“Kimmeridge”) filed a lawsuit against Stone in the 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana seeking damages in the amount of $18,373 plus interest, costs and attorney fees. Kimmeridge alleged that Stone was obligated to pay Kimmeridge (1) $1,119 for brokerage costs incurred pursuant to a letter of understanding and (2) $17,254 pursuant to a letter of intent which, according to Kimeridge's pleadings, required Stone to negotiate in good faith and close an acquisition of mineral interests in the Illinois basin. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Stone, limiting damages on Kimmeridge’s $17,254 claim to $1,000 and reducing Stone's exposure at trial for both claims to $2,119. During the three months ended June 30, 2015, Stone and Kimmeridge settled both claims for an amount within the previously disclosed range of loss (between $0 and $2,119).