6. Derivative Financial Instruments

Our market risk exposure relates primarily to commodity prices and interest rates.  From time to time, we use various derivative instruments to manage our exposure to commodity price risk from sales of our oil and natural gas and interest rate risk from floating interest rates on our revolving bank credit facility.  All of the derivative counterparties are also lenders or affiliates of lenders participating in our revolving bank credit facility.  We are exposed to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the derivative counterparties; however, we currently anticipate that each of our derivative counterparties will be able to fulfill their contractual obligations.  Additional collateral is not required by us due to the derivative counterparties’ collateral rights as lenders and we do not require collateral from our derivative counterparties.

In accordance with GAAP, we record each derivative contract on the balance sheet as an asset or a liability at its fair value.  We have elected not to designate our commodity derivative contracts as hedging instruments; therefore, all changes in the fair value of derivative contracts are recognized currently in earnings.  The cash flows of all of our commodity derivative contracts are included in Net cash provided by operating activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

For information about fair value measurements, refer to Note 8.

Commodity Derivatives

As of December 31, 2014, we did not have any open commodity contracts.  During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, we entered into derivative contracts and these contracts consisted entirely of crude oil swap contracts.  While these contracts were intended to reduce the effects of price volatility, they may have limited income from favorable price movements.  The crude oil swap contracts were comprised of a portion based on Brent crude oil prices, a portion based on West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) crude oil prices and a portion based on Light Louisiana Sweet (“LLS”) crude oil prices.  The Brent based swap contracts were priced off the Brent crude oil price quoted on the Intercontinental Exchange, known as ICE.  The WTI based swap contracts were priced off the New York Mercantile Exchange, known as NYMEX.  The LLS based swap contracts were priced from data provided by Argus, an independent media organization.  Although our Gulf of Mexico crude oil price is based off the WTI crude oil price plus a premium, the realized prices received for our Gulf of Mexico crude oil, up until October 2013, had been closer to the Brent crude oil price because of competition with foreign supplied crude oil, which was based off the Brent crude oil price.  Therefore, a portion of the swap oil contracts were priced off the Brent crude oil price to mitigate a portion of the price risk associated with our Gulf of Mexico crude oil production.

The following balance sheet line items included amounts related to the estimated fair value of our open derivative contracts as indicated in the following table (in thousands):

Changes in the fair value of our commodity derivative contracts are recognized currently in earnings and were as follows (in thousands):

Cash payments on derivative settlements, net, are included within Net cash provided by operating activities on the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows and were as follows (in thousands):

Offsetting Commodity Derivatives

During 2014, 2013 and 2012, all of our derivative agreements allowed for netting of derivative gains and losses upon settlement.  In general, the terms of the agreements provided for offsetting of amounts payable or receivable between us and the counterparty, at the election of both parties, for transactions that occur on the same date and in the same currency.  If an event of default were to occur causing an acceleration of payment under our revolving bank credit facility, that event may also trigger an acceleration of settlement of our derivative instruments.  If we were required to settle all of our open derivative instruments, we would have been able to net payments and receipts per counterparty pursuant to the derivative agreements.  Although our derivative agreements allow for netting, which would allow for recording assets and liabilities per counterparty on a net basis, we have historically accounted for our derivative contracts on a gross basis per contract as either an asset or liability.

There were no open derivative contracts as of December 31, 2014.  The following table provides a reconciliation of the gross assets and liabilities reflected in the balance sheet and the potential effects of master netting agreements on the fair value of open derivative contracts as of December 31, 2013 (in thousands):