Employee Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Employee benefits

Note 10 - Employee Benefits

The Company has a noncontributory defined benefit pension plan and a life insurance plan covering a majority of its employees and a postretirement medical plan providing coverage to less than half of its employees. Employees hired or rehired after June 30, 2010 are not eligible for the noncontributory defined benefit pension plan and employees hired or rehired after December 31, 1996, are not eligible for the postretirement medical plan and are not eligible to receive basic life insurance once they retire.

Questar is subject to and complies with minimum-required and maximum-allowed annual contribution levels for its qualified pension plan as determined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code. The 2013 estimated qualified pension expense is $32.2 million.

The Company also has a nonqualified pension plan that covers a group of management employees in addition to the noncontributory qualified pension plan. The nonqualified pension plan provides for defined benefit payments upon retirement of the management employee, or to the spouse upon death of the management employee, above the benefit limit defined by the IRS for the qualified plan. The nonqualified pension plan is unfunded; claims are paid from the Company's general funds. The 2013 nonqualified pension plan expense is estimated to be $3.4 million. Components of the qualified and nonqualified pension expense included in the determination of net income are listed in the table below:

	3 Months Ended						12 Months Ended
	March 31,						March 31,
	2013			2012			2013			2012
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	3.4		$	3.3		$	13.3		$	10.4
Interest cost	7.9			7.7			31.3			29.1
Expected return on plan assets	(9.5		)	(7.7		)	(33.6		)	(27.4		)
Prior-service and other costs	0.3			0.3			1.1			1.9
Recognized net actuarial loss	6.8			5.4			26.3			14.9
Pension expense	$	8.9		$	9.0		$	38.4		$	28.9

The Company currently estimates a $5.0 million expense for postretirement benefits other than pensions in 2013 before $0.8 million for accretion of a regulatory liability. Postretirement benefit expense components are listed in the table below:

	3 Months Ended						12 Months Ended
	March 31,						March 31,
	2013			2012			2013			2012
	(in millions)
Service cost	$	0.2		$	0.1		$	0.8		$	0.4
Interest cost	1.0			0.9			3.9			4.0
Expected return on plan assets	(0.7		)	(0.5		)	(2.5		)	(2.4		)
Amortization of transition obligation	—			0.4			1.2			1.8
Amortization of losses	0.7			0.6			2.6			0.8
Accretion of regulatory liability	0.2			0.2			0.8			0.8
Postretirement benefits expense	$	1.4		$	1.7		$	6.8		$	5.4