Employee Benefits

The Company maintains closed, defined-benefit pension and postretirement medical plans. QEP's pension plans include a qualified and a nonqualified retirement plan. The Company's postretirement medical plan is unfunded and provides certain health care and life insurance benefits for certain retired employees. During the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company made contributions of $8.1 million to its funded qualified pension plan and $4.4 million to its unfunded nonqualified retirement plan. Contributions to funded qualified plans increase plan assets while contributions to unfunded nonqualified plans are used to fund current benefit payments. During the remainder of 2014, the Company expects to contribute $0.6 million to its unfunded nonqualified pension plans and $0.1 million for retiree health care and life insurance benefits. No additional funding in 2014 is expected for its funded qualified pension plan. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 for continuing operations, QEP recognized $1.4 million and $5.5 million, respectively, in recurring employee benefit expense compared to $2.3 million and $7.6 million, respectively, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2014 for discontinued operations, QEP recognized $0.4 million and $1.4 million, respectively, in recurring employee benefit expense compared to $0.7 million and $1.9 million, respectively, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company recognized a $2.4 million expense on curtailment and a $0.3 million expense for special termination benefits in connection with the second quarter 2014 property sales in the Midcontinent area (see Note 3 - Acquisitions and Divestitures). A curtailment is recognized immediately when there is a significant reduction in, or an elimination of, defined benefit accruals for present employees' future services. These expenses are included within “Net gain (loss) from asset sales” on the Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2014.

The following table sets forth the Company’s pension and postretirement benefits net periodic benefit costs:



	Pension
	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2014			2013			2014			2013
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	0.6		$	0.7		$	2.0		$	2.6
Interest cost	1.2			1.2			4.0			3.7
Expected return on plan assets	(1.4		)	(0.9		)	(3.8		)	(2.9		)
Amortization of prior service costs ⁽¹⁾	1.1			1.2			3.6			3.7
Amortization of actuarial losses ⁽¹⁾	0.2			0.5			0.6			1.7
Curtailment cost	—			—			2.0			—
Special termination benefits	—			—			0.3			—
Periodic expense	$	1.7		$	2.7		$	8.7		$	8.8

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⁽¹⁾	Amortization of prior service costs and actuarial losses out of AOCI are recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations in "General and administrative."



	Postretirement Benefits
	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
	2014		2013		2014		2013
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	—	$	0.1	$	—	$	0.1
Interest cost	—		—		0.2		0.2
Amortization of prior service costs ⁽¹⁾	0.1		0.1		0.3		0.3
Recognized net actuarial loss	—		0.1		—		0.1
Curtailment cost	—				0.4		—
Periodic expense	$	0.1	$	0.3	$	0.9	$	0.7

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⁽¹⁾	Amortization of prior service costs out of AOCI are recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations in "General and administrative."