Other Commitments And Contingencies |
3 Months Ended | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mar. 31, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commitments and Contingencies | Other Commitments and Contingencies A. Guarantees and Indemnities. In the normal course of its business, the Partnership and certain subsidiaries enter into various agreements providing financial or performance assurance to third parties on behalf of the parent or certain subsidiaries. Such agreements include guarantees and stand-by letters of credit. These agreements are entered into primarily to support or enhance the creditworthiness otherwise attributed to the parent or a subsidiary on a stand-alone basis, thereby facilitating the extension of sufficient credit to accomplish the parent or the subsidiaries' intended commercial purposes. The total guarantees and indemnities in existence at March 31, 2016 and the years in which they expire were:
Guarantees of Debt. OpCo GP and Columbia OpCo (together with CEG, the "Guarantors") have guaranteed payment of $2,750.0 million in aggregated principal amount of CPG's senior notes. Each Guarantor is required to comply with covenants under the debt indenture and in the event of default the Guarantors would be obligated to pay the debt's principal and related interest. The Partnership does not anticipate that OpCo GP or Columbia OpCo will have any difficulty maintaining compliance. The guarantees of any Guarantor may be released under certain circumstances. First, if CPG discharges or defeases its obligations with respect to any series of CPG’s senior notes, then any guarantee will be released with respect to that series. Second, if no event of default has occurred and is continuing under the indenture, a Guarantor will be automatically and unconditionally released and discharged from its guarantee (i) at any time after June 1, 2018, upon any sale, exchange or transfer, whether by way of merger or otherwise, to any person that is not CPG’s affiliate, of all of CPG’s direct or indirect limited partnership, limited liability or other equity interests in the Guarantor; (ii) upon the merger of a guarantor into CPG or any other Guarantor or the liquidation and dissolution of such Guarantor; or (iii) at any time after June 1, 2018, upon release of all guarantees or other obligations of the Guarantor with respect to any of CPG’s funded debt, except CPG’s senior notes. Lines and Letters of Credit. The Partnership maintains a $500.0 million senior revolving credit facility, of which $50.0 million is available for issuance of letters of credit. The purpose of the facility is to provide cash for general partnership purposes, including working capital, capital expenditures, and the funding of capital calls. As of March 31, 2016, the Partnership had $15.0 million in outstanding borrowings and no letters of credit under the revolving credit facility. CPG maintains a $1,500.0 million senior revolving credit facility, of which $250.0 million in letters of credit is available. CPG expects that $750.0 million of the facility will be utilized as credit support for Columbia OpCo and its subsidiaries and the remaining $750.0 million of the facility will be available for CPG’s general corporate purposes, including working capital. The revolving credit facility will provide liquidity support for CPG's $1,000.0 million commercial paper program. OpCo GP and Columbia OpCo, together with CEG, have each fully guaranteed the CPG credit facility. As of March 31, 2016, CPG had no borrowings outstanding and $18.1 million in letters of credit outstanding under its revolving credit facility. CPG has established a commercial paper program (the “Program”) pursuant to which CPG may issue short-term promissory notes (the “Promissory Notes”) pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). Amounts available under the Program may be borrowed, repaid and re-borrowed from time to time, with the aggregate face or principal amount of the Promissory Notes outstanding under the Program at any time not to exceed $1,000.0 million. OpCo GP and Columbia OpCo, together with CEG, have each agreed, jointly and severally, unconditionally and irrevocably to guarantee payment in full of the principal of and interest (if any) on the Promissory Notes. The net proceeds of issuances of the Promissory Notes are expected to be used for general corporate purposes. As of March 31, 2016, CPG had no Promissory Notes outstanding under the Program. B. Other Legal Proceedings. In the normal course of its business, the Partnership has been named as a defendant in various legal proceedings. In the opinion of management, the ultimate disposition of these currently asserted claims will not have a material impact on the Partnership’s consolidated and combined financial statements. C. Environmental Matters. The Partnership's operations are subject to environmental statutes and regulations related to air quality, water quality, hazardous waste and solid waste. The Partnership believes that it is in substantial compliance with those environmental regulations currently applicable to its operations and believes that it has all necessary material permits to conduct its operations. It is the Partnership's continued intent to address environmental issues in cooperation with regulatory authorities in such a manner as to achieve mutually acceptable compliance plans. However, there can be no assurance that fines and penalties will not be incurred. The Partnership records accruals to cover environmental remediation at various sites. The current portion of this accrual is included in “Other accruals” in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited). The noncurrent portion is included in “Other noncurrent liabilities” in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited). Air The CAA and comparable state laws regulate emissions of air pollutants from various industrial sources, including compressor stations, and also impose various monitoring and reporting requirements. Such laws and regulations may require pre-approval for the construction or modification of certain projects or facilities expected to produce air emissions or result in an increase of existing air emissions; application for, and strict compliance with, air permits containing various emissions and operational limitations; or the utilization of specific emission control technologies to limit emissions. The actions listed below could require further reductions in emissions from various emission sources. The Partnership will continue to closely monitor developments in these matters. National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The federal CAA requires the EPA to set NAAQS for particulate matter and five other pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment. Periodically, the EPA imposes new or modifies existing NAAQS. States that contain areas that do not meet the new or revised standards must take steps to maintain or achieve compliance with the standards. These steps could include additional pollution controls on boilers, engines, turbines, and other facilities owned by gas transmission operations. The following NAAQS were recently added or modified: Ozone: On October 1, 2015, the EPA issued a final rule lowering the NAAQS for ground-level ozone to 70 ppb under both the primary and secondary standards to provide requisite protection of public health and welfare, respectively. The EPA is required to include an adequate margin of safety in establishing the primary ozone standard for protection of public health, whereas the secondary ozone standard is intended to improve protection for trees, plants and ecosystems. The final rule becomes effective sixty days after the rule is published in the Federal Register. The EPA is required to make attainment and non-attainment designations for specific geographic locations under the revised standards by October 1, 2017 and, depending on the severity of the ozone present, non-attainment areas will have until between 2020 and 2037 to meet the health standard. With the EPA lowering the ground-level ozone standard, states may be required to implement more stringent regulations. Based on the current version of the rule, the Partnership does not expect a material impact on its operations. Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2): The EPA revised the NO2 NAAQS by adding a one-hour standard while retaining the annual standard. The new standard could impact some CPG combustion sources. The EPA designated all areas of the country as unclassifiable/attainment in January 2012. After the establishment of a new monitoring network and possible modeling implementation, areas will potentially be re-designated sometime in 2016. States with areas that do not meet the standard will be required to develop rules to bring areas into compliance within five years of designation. Additionally, under certain permitting circumstances, emissions from some existing Partnership combustion sources may need to be assessed and mitigated. The Partnership will continue to monitor this matter and cannot estimate the impact of these rules at this time. Climate Change. Future legislative and regulatory programs could significantly restrict emissions of greenhouse gases including methane. New Source Performance Standards: On August 18, 2015, the EPA proposed to regulate fugitive methane emissions for compressor stations in the natural gas transmission and storage sector. The proposed rule was subsequently published in the Federal Register on September 18, 2015. Semiannual leak detection and repair requirements using optical gas imaging are proposed for all components at new or existing compressor stations. Existing compressor stations trigger leak detection and repair requirements if any unit at the facility is modified. The EPA proposed additional requirements for any new or modified centrifugal or reciprocating compressors. Replacement of wet seals with dry seals or demonstrating a 95% reduction of methane emissions from wet seals is proposed for centrifugal compressors and rod packing replacement for reciprocating compressors is proposed every 26,000 hours of operation or every three years. The Partnership will continue to monitor this matter and cannot estimate the impact of these rules at this time. Pipeline Safety On March 17, 2016, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) announced a proposed rulemaking that would, if adopted, impose more stringent requirements for certain gas lines and gathering lines under varying circumstances. Among other things, the proposed rulemaking would extend certain of PHMSA’s current regulatory safety programs for gas pipelines beyond “high consequence areas” to cover gas pipelines found in newly defined “moderate consequence areas” that contain as few as 5 dwellings within the potential impact area; require gas pipelines installed before 1970 that are currently exempted from certain pressure testing obligations to be tested to determine their maximum allowable operating pressures (“MAOP”); and require gathering lines in Class I areas, both onshore and offshore, to comply with standards regarding damage prevention, corrosion control (for metallic pipe), public education, MAOP limits, line markers and emergency planning if such gathering lines’ nominal design is 8 inches or more. In order to provide clarity and greater certainty on what may constitute a “gathering line,” PHMSA is proposing a new definition of that term under the rulemaking, which term would now encompass “a pipeline, or a connected series of pipelines, and equipment used to collect gas from the endpoint of a production facility/operation and transport it to the furthermost point downstream of the following endpoints” including the “inlet of 1st gas processing plant;” the “outlet of” a gas treatment facility (not associated with a processing plant or compressor station); the “[o]utlet of the furthermost downstream compressor” leading to a pipeline, or the “point where separate production fields are commingled.” Other new requirements proposed by PHMSA under the rulemaking would require pipeline operators to: report to PHMSA in the event of certain MAOP exceedances; strengthen PHMSA integrity management requirements; consider seismicity in evaluating threats to a pipeline; conduct hydrostatic testing for all pipeline segments manufactured using longitudinal seam welds; and use more detailed guidance from PHMSA in the selection of assessment methods to inspect pipelines. Adoption of some or all of these standards under the proposed rulemaking could cause us to incur increased capital costs and costs of operation, which could be significant. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||