investments, sales or pledges of assets, changes in control, repurchases or redemptions for cash of our common or preferred stock, speculative commodity transactions and other matters. The credit facility also requires that specified financial ratios be maintained. We may not be able to refinance our debt or obtain additional financing, particularly in view of our credit facility restrictions on our ability to incur additional debt and the fact that substantially all of our assets are currently pledged to secure obligations under the credit facility. The restrictions of our credit facility and our difficulty in obtaining additional debt financing may have adverse consequences on our operations and financial results including:

• our ability to obtain financing for working capital, capital expenditures, our drilling program, purchases of new technology or other purposes may be impaired;
• the covenants in our credit facility that limit our ability to borrow additional funds and dispose of assets may affect our flexibility in planning for, and reacting to, changes in business conditions;
• because our indebtedness is subject to variable interest rates, we are vulnerable to increases in interest rates;
• any additional financing we obtain may be on unfavorable terms;
• we may be required to use a substantial portion of our cash flow to make debt service payments, which will reduce the funds that would otherwise be available for operations and future business opportunities;
• a substantial decrease in our operating cash flow or an increase in our expenses could make it difficult for us to meet debt service requirements and could require us to modify our operations, including by curtailing portions of our drilling program, selling assets, reducing our capital expenditures, refinancing all or a portion of our existing debt or obtaining additional financing; and
• we may become more vulnerable to downturns in our business or the economy generally.

We may incur additional debt in order to fund our exploration and development activities. A higher level of indebtedness increases the risk that we may default on our debt obligations. Our ability to meet our debt obligations and reduce our level of indebtedness depends on future performance. General economic conditions, natural gas and oil prices and financial, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, affect our operations and our future performance. Our senior subordinated notes and senior subordinated secured notes contain restrictive covenants similar to those under our credit facility.

In addition, under the terms of our credit facility, our borrowing base is subject to redeterminations at least semiannually based in part on prevailing natural gas and oil prices. In the event the amount outstanding exceeds the redetermined borrowing base, we could be forced to repay a portion of our borrowings. We may not have sufficient funds to make any required repayment. If we do not have sufficient funds and are otherwise unable to negotiate renewals of our borrowings or arrange new financing, we may have to sell a portion of our assets.

WE MAY RECORD CEILING LIMITATION WRITE-DOWNS THAT WOULD REDUCE OUR
SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY.

We use the full-cost method of accounting for investments in natural gas and oil properties. Accordingly, we capitalize all the direct costs of acquiring, exploring for and developing natural gas and oil properties. Under the full-cost accounting rules, the net capitalized cost of natural gas and oil properties may not exceed a "ceiling limit" that is based upon the present value of estimated future net revenues from proved reserves, discounted at 10%, plus the lower of the cost or the fair market value of unproved properties. If net capitalized costs of natural gas and oil properties exceed the ceiling limit, we must charge the amount of the excess to operations through depreciation, depletion and amortization expense. This charge is called a "ceiling limitation write-down." This charge does not impact cash flow from operating activities but does reduce our shareholders' equity. The risk that we will be required to write down the carrying value of our natural gas and oil properties increases when natural gas and oil prices are low or volatile. In addition, write-downs would occur if we were to experience sufficient downward adjustments to our estimated proved reserves or the present value of estimated future net revenues, as further discussed in "Risk Factors--Our reserve data and estimated discount future net cash flows are estimates based upon assumptions that may be inaccurate and are based on existing economic and operating conditions that may change in the future." Once incurred, a write-down of natural gas and oil properties is not reversible at a later date. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations--Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates" for additional information on these matters.

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