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counterparties and have a netting agreement in place with those
counterparties. We do not obtain collateral to support the agreements
but monitor the financial viability of counterparties and believe
our credit risk is minimal on these transactions. Under these arrangements,
payments are received or made based on the differential between
a fixed and a variable product price. These agreements are settled
in cash at expiration or exchanged for physical delivery contracts.
In the event of nonperformance, we would again be exposed to price
risk. We have additional risk of financial loss because the price
received for the product at the actual physical delivery point may
differ from the prevailing price at the delivery point required
for settlement of the hedging transaction. Moreover, our derivative
arrangements generally do not apply to all of our production and
thus provide only partial price protection against declines in commodity
prices. We expect that the amount of our hedges will vary from time
to time.
Our natural gas derivative transactions are generally settled
based upon the average of the reporting settlement prices on the
Houston Ship Channel index for the last three trading days of a
particular contract month. Our oil derivative transactions are generally
settled based on the average reporting settlement prices on the
West Texas Intermediate index for each trading day of a particular
calendar month.
At December 31, 2006 we had the following outstanding derivative
positions:
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Item 7A. Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures
About Market Risk
Commodity Risk.
Our major market risk exposure is the commodity pricing applicable
to our oil and natural gas production. Realized commodity prices
received for such production are primarily driven by the prevailing
worldwide price for oil and spot prices applicable to natural gas.
The effects of such pricing volatility have been discussed above,
and such volatility is expected to continue. A 10% fluctuation in
the price received for oil and gas production would have an approximate
$8.3 million impact on our 2006 annual revenues.
To mitigate some of
this risk, we engage periodically in certain limited hedging activities,
including price swaps, costless collars and, occasionally, put options,
in order to establish some price floor protection. Costs and any
benefits derived from these price floors are accordingly recorded
as a reduction or increase, as applicable, in oil and gas sales
revenue and were not significant for any year presented. The costs
to purchase put options are amortized over the option period. We
do not hold or issue
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