COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

Environmental Matters

Accruals for environmental matters are recorded when it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the liability can be reasonably estimated, based on current law and existing technologies.

At June 30, 2013, the Corporation had accrued obligations of $111 million for probable environmental remediation and restoration costs, including $21 million for the remediation of Superfund sites. This is management’s best estimate of the costs for remediation and restoration with respect to environmental matters for which the Corporation has accrued liabilities, although it is reasonably possible that the ultimate cost with respect to these particular matters could range up to approximately two and a half times that amount. Consequently, it is reasonably possible that environmental remediation and restoration costs in excess of amounts accrued could have a material impact on the Corporation’s results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. It is the opinion of the Corporation’s management, however, that the possibility is remote that costs in excess of the range disclosed will have a material impact on the Corporation’s results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Inherent uncertainties exist in these estimates primarily due to unknown environmental conditions, changing governmental regulations and legal standards regarding liability, and emerging remediation technologies for handling site remediation and restoration. At December 31, 2012, the Corporation had accrued obligations of $95 million for probable environmental remediation and restoration costs, including $21 million for the remediation of Superfund sites.

Litigation

The Corporation is involved in a number of legal proceedings and claims with both private and governmental parties. These cover a wide range of matters, including, but not limited to: product liability; trade regulation; governmental regulatory proceedings; health, safety and environmental matters; employment; patents; contracts; taxes; and commercial disputes.

Asbestos-Related Matters

Separately, the Corporation is and has been involved in a large number of asbestos-related suits filed primarily in state courts during the past three decades. These suits principally allege personal injury resulting from exposure to asbestos-containing products and frequently seek both actual and punitive damages. The alleged claims primarily relate to products that UCC sold in the past, alleged exposure to asbestos-containing products located on UCC’s premises, and UCC’s responsibility for asbestos suits filed against a former UCC subsidiary, Amchem Products, Inc. (“Amchem”). In many cases, plaintiffs are unable to demonstrate that they have suffered any compensable loss as a result of such exposure, or that injuries incurred in fact resulted from exposure to the Corporation’s products.

The Corporation expects more asbestos-related suits to be filed against UCC and Amchem in the future, and will aggressively defend or reasonably resolve, as appropriate, both pending and future claims.

Estimating the Liability

Based on a study completed by Analysis, Research & Planning Corporation (“ARPC”) in January 2003, the Corporation increased its December 31, 2002 asbestos-related liability for pending and future claims for the 15-year period ending in 2017 to $2.2 billion, excluding future defense and processing costs. Since then, the Corporation has compared current asbestos claim and resolution activity to the results of the most recent ARPC study at each balance sheet date to determine whether the accrual continues to be appropriate. In addition, the Corporation has requested ARPC to review the Corporation’s historical asbestos claim and resolution activity each year to determine the appropriateness of updating the most recent ARPC study.

In November 2011, the Corporation requested ARPC to review the Corporation's 2011 asbestos claim and resolution activity and determine the appropriateness of updating its then most recent study completed in December 2010. In response to that request, ARPC reviewed and analyzed data through October 31, 2011. In January 2012, ARPC stated that an update of its study would not provide a more likely estimate of future events than the estimate reflected in its December 2010 study and, therefore, the estimate in that study remained applicable. Based on the Corporation's own review of the asbestos claim and resolution activity and ARPC's response, the Corporation determined that no change to the accrual was required. At December 31, 2011, the Corporation's asbestos-related liability for pending and future claims was $668 million.

In October 2012, the Corporation requested ARPC to review the Corporation's historical asbestos claim and resolution activity and determine the appropriateness of updating its December 2010 study. In response to that request, ARPC reviewed and analyzed data through September 30, 2012. In December 2012, based upon ARPC's December 2012 study and the Corporation's own review of the asbestos claim and resolution activity for 2012, it was determined that no adjustment to the accrual was required at December 31, 2012. The Corporation's asbestos-related liability for pending and future claims was $602 million at December 31, 2012. At December 31, 2012, approximately 18 percent of the recorded liability related to pending claims and approximately 82 percent related to future claims.

Based on the Corporation’s review of 2013 activity, it was determined that no adjustment to the accrual was required at June 30, 2013. The Corporation’s asbestos-related liability for pending and future claims was $568 million at June 30, 2013. Approximately 17 percent of the recorded liability related to pending claims and approximately 83 percent related to future claims.

Insurance Receivables

At December 31, 2002, the Corporation increased the receivable for insurance recoveries related to its asbestos liability to $1.35 billion, substantially exhausting its asbestos product liability coverage. The insurance receivable related to the asbestos liability was determined by the Corporation after a thorough review of applicable insurance policies and the 1985 Wellington Agreement, to which the Corporation and many of its liability insurers are signatory parties, as well as other insurance settlements, with due consideration given to applicable deductibles, retentions and policy limits, and taking into account the solvency and historical payment experience of various insurance carriers. The Wellington Agreement and other agreements with insurers are designed to facilitate an orderly resolution and collection of the Corporation’s insurance policies and to resolve issues that the insurance carriers may raise.

In September 2003, the Corporation filed a comprehensive insurance coverage case, now proceeding in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, seeking to confirm its rights to insurance for various asbestos claims and to facilitate an orderly and timely collection of insurance proceeds (the “Insurance Litigation”). The Insurance Litigation was filed against insurers that were not signatories to the Wellington Agreement and/or do not otherwise have agreements in place with the Corporation regarding their asbestos-related insurance coverage, in order to facilitate an orderly resolution and collection of such insurance policies and to resolve issues that the insurance carriers may raise. Since the filing of the case, the Corporation has reached settlements with most of the carriers involved in the Insurance Litigation, including settlements reached with two significant carriers in the fourth quarter of 2009. The Insurance Litigation is ongoing.

The Corporation’s receivable for insurance recoveries related to its asbestos liability was $25 million at June 30, 2013 and $25 million at December 31, 2012. At June 30, 2013 and December 31, 2012, all of the receivable for insurance recoveries was related to insurers that are not signatories to the Wellington Agreement and/or do not otherwise have agreements in place regarding their asbestos-related insurance coverage.

In addition to the receivable for insurance recoveries related to its asbestos liability, the Corporation had receivables for defense and resolution costs submitted to insurance carriers that have settlement agreements in place regarding their asbestos-related insurance coverage.

The following table summarizes the Corporation’s receivables related to its asbestos-related liability:



Receivables for Asbestos-Related Costs In millions	Jun 30, 2013		Dec 31, 2012
Receivables for defense costs - carriers with settlement agreements	$	17	$	17
Receivables for resolution costs - carriers with settlement agreements	134		137
Receivables for insurance recoveries - carriers without settlement agreements	25		25
Total	$	176	$	179

The Corporation expenses defense costs as incurred. The pretax impact for defense and resolution costs, net of insurance, was $29 million for the second quarter of 2013 ($23 million in the second quarter of 2012), $51 million for the first six months of 2013 ($48 million for the first six months of 2012) and was included in “Cost of sales” in the consolidated statements of operations.

After a review of its insurance policies, with due consideration given to applicable deductibles, retentions and policy limits, and after taking into account the solvency and historical payment experience of various insurance carriers; existing insurance settlements; and the advice of outside counsel with respect to the applicable insurance coverage law relating to the terms and conditions of its insurance policies, the Corporation continues to believe that its recorded receivable for insurance recoveries from all insurance carriers is probable of collection.

Summary

The amounts recorded by the Corporation for the asbestos-related liability and related insurance receivable described above were based upon current, known facts. However, future events, such as the number of new claims to be filed and/or received each year, the average cost of disposing of each such claim, coverage issues among insurers and the continuing solvency of various insurance companies, as well as the numerous uncertainties surrounding asbestos litigation in the United States, could cause the actual costs and insurance recoveries for the Corporation to be higher or lower than those projected or those recorded.

Because of the uncertainties described above, the Corporation's management cannot estimate the full range of the cost of resolving pending and future asbestos-related claims facing UCC and Amchem. The Corporation's management believes that it is reasonably possible that the cost of disposing of the Corporation’s asbestos-related claims, including future defense costs, could have a material impact on the Corporation's results of operations and cash flows for a particular period and on the consolidated financial position of the Corporation.

While it is not possible at this time to determine with certainty the ultimate outcome of any of the legal proceedings and claims referred to in this filing, management believes that adequate provisions have been made for probable losses with respect to pending claims and proceedings, and that, except for the asbestos-related matters described above, the ultimate outcome of all known and future claims, after provisions for insurance, will not have a material adverse impact on the results of operations, cash flows and financial position of the Corporation. Should any losses be sustained in connection with any of such legal proceedings and claims in excess of provisions provided and available insurance, they will be charged to income when determinable.

Purchase Commitments

At December 31, 2012, the Corporation had various outstanding commitments for take-or-pay agreements, with remaining terms extending from two to thirteen years. Such commitments were not in excess of current market prices. The fixed and determinable portion of obligations under purchase commitments at December 31, 2012 is presented in the table below. There have been no material changes to purchase commitments since December 31, 2012.



Fixed and Determinable Portion of Take-or-Pay Obligations at December 31, 2012 In millions
2013	$	11
2014	11
2015	8
2016	6
2017	6
2018 and beyond	10
Total	$	52

Asset Retirement Obligations

The Corporation has recognized asset retirement obligations related to capping activities at landfill sites in the United States. The aggregate carrying amount of these asset retirement obligations was $4 million at June 30, 2013 and $4 million at December 31, 2012. The Corporation also has recognized conditional asset retirement obligations related to asbestos encapsulation as a result of planned demolition and remediation activities at manufacturing and administrative sites in the United States. The aggregate carrying amount of conditional asset retirement obligations was $7 million at June 30, 2013 and $7 million at December 31, 2012. The discount rate used to calculate the Corporation’s asset retirement obligations and conditional asset retirement obligations was 0.87 percent at June 30, 2013 and 0.87 percent at December 31, 2012. These obligations are included in the consolidated balance sheets as "Accrued and other current liabilities" and "Other noncurrent obligations."

The Corporation has not recognized conditional asset retirement obligations for which a fair value cannot be reasonably estimated in its consolidated financial statements. It is the opinion of management that the possibility is remote that such conditional asset retirement obligations, when estimable, will have a material impact on the Corporation’s consolidated financial statements based on current costs.

K-Dow Arbritration

On November 28, 2008, Dow entered into a Joint Venture Formation Agreement (the “JVFA”) with PIC that provided for the establishment of K-Dow. To form the joint venture, Dow would transfer, by way of contribution and sale to K-Dow, assets used in the research, development, manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, polycarbonate compounds and blends, ethyleneamines, ethanolamines, and related licensing and catalyst technologies; and K-Dow would assume certain related liabilities. It was anticipated that a significant part (but not substantially all) of UCC's U.S.-based manufacturing assets would be included in the new joint venture.

In February 2009, Dow initiated arbitration proceedings against Petrochemical Industries Company (K.S.C.) ("PIC") alleging that PIC breached the Joint Venture Formation Agreement related to the establishment of K-Dow, a proposed 50:50 global petrochemicals joint venture with PIC, by failing to close the transaction. In May 2012, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce ("ICC") awarded Dow $2.161 billion in damages ("Partial Award"), not including pre- and post-award interest and damages. On March 4, 2013, the ICC released the Final Award in the arbitration case covering Dow's claim for pre- and post-award interest and arbitration costs and awarded Dow $318 million, as of February 28, 2013. On May 7, 2013, Dow confirmed the receipt of a $2.195 billion cash payment from PIC, which included the Partial Award of $2.161 billion as well as recovery of Dow's costs incurred in the arbitration, including legal fees. The K-Dow arbitration is considered final and settled in full. No portion of the payment or claims were awarded or allocated to the Corporation.