Commitments and Contingencies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 10 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Office Lease

The Company’s corporate headquarters are located in 28,743 square feet of office space at One Lincoln Centre, 5400 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1500, Dallas, Texas. The lease, as amended on July 1, 2011, expires on June 30, 2022. The effective base rent is $19.75 per square foot per year. The base rate escalates in July 2015, July 2017, July 2019 and July 2020.

Natural Gas and NGL Transportation and Processing Commitments

The Company entered into a firm transportation and processing agreement whereby it has committed to transport its anticipated natural gas and natural gas liquids production from a significant portion of its Eagle Ford acreage in south Texas through the counterparty’s pipeline for further processing at the counterparty’s facilities. The agreement was effective as of September 1, 2012 and expires on September 1, 2017. The arrangement contains fees that vary based on the price of natural gas, the quality of natural gas transported to the processing facility and the contract period.

If the Company does not meet 80% of the maximum thermal quantity transportation and processing commitments in a contract year, it will be required to pay a deficiency fee per MMBtu of natural gas deficiency. Any quantity in excess of the maximum MMBtu delivered in a contract year can be carried over to the next contract year for purposes of calculating the gas deficiency. The Company believes that its current and anticipated production from the wells covered by this agreement is sufficient to meet 80% of the maximum thermal quantity transportation and processing commitments under this agreement. We paid approximately $64,000 in transportation and processing fees under this agreement for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012.

The aggregate undiscounted minimum commitments under this agreement at September 30, 2012 are as follows (in thousands).

Year ending December 31, 2012	Amount
2012	$	780
2013		5,985
2014		4,731
2015		2,992
2016		1,800
Thereafter		1,195
Total	$	17,483

Other Commitments

During the first quarter of 2012, the Company extended one of its drilling rig contracts in South Texas for an additional nine months. The Company terminated its second contract with no termination penalty and entered into a new contract for a higher performance rig with the same drilling rig contractor for a period of one year. Drilling operations under these two contracts began in early March 2012. Should the Company elect to terminate one or both contracts and if the drilling contractor were unable to secure work for one or both rigs or if the drilling contractor were unable to secure work for one or both rigs at the same daily rate being charged to the Company prior to the end of their respective terms, the Company would incur termination obligations. The Company’s maximum outstanding aggregate termination obligations under these contracts were approximately $3.7 million at September 30, 2012.

At September 30, 2012, the Company had outstanding commitments to participate in the drilling and completion of various non-operated wells, primarily in the Haynesville shale and the Eagle Ford shale. The Company’s working interests in these wells are small, and most of these wells were in progress at September 30, 2012. If all of these wells are drilled and completed, the Company’s minimum outstanding aggregate commitments at September 30, 2012 for its participation in these wells were approximately $3.6 million, and the Company expects these costs to be incurred in the next twelve months.

Legal Proceedings

Cynthia Fry Peironnet, et al. v. Matador Resources Company. The Company is involved in a dispute over a mineral rights lease involving certain acreage in Louisiana. The dispute regards an extension of the term of a lease in Caddo Parish, Louisiana (the “Lease”) where the Company has drilled or participated in the drilling of both Cotton Valley and Haynesville shale wells. At issue are the deep rights below the Cotton Valley formation on approximately 1,805 gross acres where the Company has the right to participate for up to a 25% working interest, and also retains a small overriding royalty interest, in Haynesville shale wells drilled in units that include portions of the acreage. The Company’s total net revenue and overriding royalty interests in several non-operated Haynesville shale wells previously drilled on this acreage range from approximately 2% to 23%, and only portions of these interests are attributable to this acreage. The sum of the Company’s overriding royalty and net revenue interests attributable to this acreage from Haynesville wells previously drilled on this acreage comprises less than one net well.

The plaintiffs brought this claim against the Company on May 15, 2008 in the First Judicial District Court, Caddo Parish, Louisiana (the “Trial Court”). The plaintiffs sought (i) reformation or rescission of the lease extension, (ii) an accounting for additional royalty, (iii) monetary damages and (iv) attorney’s fees. During the pendency of the case in the Trial Court, the Company settled with one lessor who owned a 1/6 ^th undivided interest in the minerals. Since May 2008, the Trial Court has rendered multiple rulings in the favor of the Company, including a unanimous jury verdict in favor of the Company in the fall of 2010. Final judgment of the Trial Court was rendered in favor of Matador on June 6, 2011. On August 1, 2012, the Louisiana Second Circuit of Appeal (the “Court of Appeal”) affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the Trial Court and remanded the case to the Trial Court for determination of damages. The Court of Appeal affirmed the Trial Court with respect to the 1/6 ^th royalty owner that settled and also affirmed that the Company’s lease extension was unambiguous. Nonetheless, the Court of Appeal reformed the lease extension to cover only approximately 169 gross acres, holding that the deep rights covering the remaining 1,636 gross acres had expired. The Court of Appeal denied the Company’s motion for rehearing, and the Company and certain other defendants have filed an appeal with the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The Company believes that the facts of the case and the applicable law do not support the Court of Appeal’s judgment and it intends to vigorously pursue its rights to have the Trial Court’s judgment reinstated. Although the Company does not consider a loss resulting from this dispute to be probable, it is reasonably possible that the Company could incur a loss as a result of the continuing litigation of this matter. The Company currently estimates that a reasonable range of potential loss is zero to $6 million.

Other

The Company is a defendant in several other lawsuits encountered in the ordinary course of its business, none of which, in the opinion of management, will have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.