Employee Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Employee Benefit Plans [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

Note 17—Employee Benefit Plans
Pension and Postretirement Plans
	Millions of Dollars
	Pension Benefits					Other Benefits
Three Months Ended	March 31					March 31
	2016			2015		2016	2015
	U.S.		Int’l.	U.S.	Int’l.
Components of Net Periodic Benefit Cost
Service cost	$	27	20	36	32	1	1
Interest cost		40	31	40	34	3	7
Expected return on plan assets		(43)	(41)	(54)	(44)	-	-
Amortization of prior service cost (credit)		1	(1)	2	(2)	(9)	(1)
Recognized net actuarial loss		19	7	28	21	-	1
Settlements		82	-	-	-	-	-
Net periodic benefit cost	$	126	16	52	41	(5)	8

During the first three months of 2016, we contributed $38 million to our domestic benefit plans and $34 million to our international benefit plans. In 2016, we expect to contribute approximately $250 million to our domestic qualified and nonqualified pension and postretirement benefit plans and $130 million to our international qualified and nonqualified pension and postretirement benefit plans.

During the three-month period ended March 31, 2016,we determined lump-sum benefit payments will exceed the sum of service and interest costs for the fiscal year for the U.S. qualified pension plan and certain U.S. nonqualified supplemental retirement plans. As a result, we recognized a proportionate share of prior actuarial losses from other comprehensive income (loss) as pension settlement expense of $82million. In conjunction with the recognition of pension settlement expense, the fair market values of pension plan assets were updated, and the pension benefit obligations of the U.S. qualified pension plan and a U.S. nonqualified supplemental retirement plan were remeasured. At the measurement date, the net pension liability increased by $231 million primarily as a result of a decrease in the discount rate from 4.5percentto 3.8percent, resulting in a corresponding decrease to other comprehensive income (loss).

Severance Accrual

The following table summarizes our severance accrual activity for the three-month period ended March 31, 2016

	Millions of Dollars
Balance at December 31, 2015	$	156
Accruals		5
Accrual reversals		(2)
Benefit payments		(106)
Foreign currency translation adjustments		3
Balance at March 31, 2016	$	56

Of the remaining balance at March 31, 2016, $20 million is classified as short-term.