factors affecting our results of operations soda ash supply and demand our net sales , earnings and cash flow from operations are primarily affected by the global supply of , and demand for soda ash , which , in turn , directly impacts the prices we and other producers charge for our products . demand for soda ash in the united states is driven in large part by general economic growth and activity levels in the end-markets that the glass-making industry serve , such as the automotive and construction industries . because the united states is a well-developed market , we expect that domestic demand levels will remain stable for the near future . because future u.s. capacity growth is expected to come from the four major producers in the green river basin , we also expect that u.s. supply levels will remain relatively stable in the near term . 48 soda ash demand in international markets has continued to grow , although the rate of growth has slowed recently due to sluggish economic growth in emerging markets . we expect that future global economic growth will positively influence global demand , which will likely result in increased exports , primarily from the united states , turkey , and to a limited extent , from china , the largest suppliers of soda ash to international markets . however , in the near term , new supply coming on-line , primarily in turkey , will likely exceed any new growth in demand . most of the new capacity is from trona based sources and therefore lower cost compared to synthetic producers . as a result , we have seen lower net prices in north and south america as some higher cost synthetic producers are taking aggressive price actions to secure multi-national customers in anticipation of lower cost capacity coming on line in turkey in 2017 and 2018. sales mix because demand for soda ash in the united states has remained relatively stable in recent years , we have focused on international markets to expand our business , and we expect to continue to do so in the near future . as a result , our operations have been and continue to be sensitive to fluctuations in freight and shipping costs and changes in international prices , which have historically been more volatile than domestic prices . our gross profit will be impacted by the mix of domestic and international sales as a result of changes in input costs and our average selling prices . in november 2016 , ciner corp , on behalf of ciner wyoming , entered into a soda ash sales agreement with an affiliate of the ciner group that sells soda ash to markets not served by ansac . we are doing this in order to leverage synergies within ciner group and stabilize the supply of soda ash to ciner group 's customers who typically like to contract on an annual calendar year basis . energy costs one of the primary impacts to our profitability is our energy costs . because we depend upon natural gas and electricity to power our trona ore mining and soda ash processing operations , our net sales , earnings and cash flow from operations are sensitive to changes in the prices we pay for these energy sources . our cost of energy , particularly natural gas , has been relatively low in recent years , and , despite the historic volatility of natural gas prices , we believe that we will continue to benefit from relatively low prices in the near future . however , we expect to continue to hedge a portion of our forecasted natural gas purchases to mitigate volatility . see item 7a , “ quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk - commodity price risks , ” for additional information . how we evaluate our business productivity of operations our soda ash production volume is primarily dependent on the following three factors : ( 1 ) operating rate , ( 2 ) quality of our mined trona ore and ( 3 ) recovery rates . operating rate is a measure of utilization of the effective production capacity of our facilities and is determined in large part by productivity rates and mechanical on-stream times , which is the percentage of actual run times over the total time scheduled . we implement two planned outages of our mining and surface operations each year , typically in the second and third quarters . during these outages , which last approximately one week , we repair and replace equipment and parts . periodically , we may experience minor unplanned outages caused by various factors , including equipment failures , power outages or service interruptions . the quality of our mine ore is determined by measuring the trona ore recovered as a percentage of the deposit , which includes both trona ore and insolubles . plant recovery rates are generally determined by calculating the soda ash produced divided by the sum of the soda ash produced plus soda ash that is not recovered from the process . all of these factors determine the amount of trona ore we require to produce one short ton of soda ash and liquor , which we refer to as our “ ore to ash ratio . ” our ore to ash ratio for the years ended december 31 , 2016 , 2015 and 2014 , was 1.50 : 1.0 , 1.52 : 1.0 and 1.52 : 1.0 , respectively . freight and logistics the soda ash industry is logistics intensive and involves careful management of freight and logistics costs . these freight costs make up a large portion of the total delivered cost to the customer . story_separator_special_tag on january 12 , 2017 , the partnership declared its fourth quarter 2016 quarterly distribution . the quarterly cash distribution of $ 0.5670 per unit was paid on february 13 , 2017 to unitholders of record on january 31 , 2017 . see part ii , item 8 , financial statements and supplementary data - note 3 , “ net income per unit and cash distribution ” , for more information . we intend to pay a sustainable quarterly distribution and continue to grow our quarterly distribution to unitholders of record over time , to the extent we have sufficient cash from our operations after establishment of cash reserves and payment of fees and expenses , including payments to our general partner and its affiliates . we do not have a legal obligation to pay this distribution . capital requirements working capital is the amount by which current assets exceed current liabilities . our working capital requirements have been , and will continue to be , primarily driven by changes in accounts receivable and accounts payable , which generally fluctuate with changes in volumes , contract terms and market prices of soda ash in the normal course of our business . other factors impacting changes in accounts receivable and accounts payable could include the timing of collections from customers and payments to suppliers , as well as the level of spending for maintenance and growth capital expenditures . a material adverse change in operations or available financing under the revolving credit facility and the ciner wyoming credit facility could impact our ability to fund our requirements for liquidity and capital resources . historically , we have not made working capital borrowings to finance our operations . as of december 31 , 2016 , we had a working capital surplus of $ 80.6 million as compared to a working capital surplus of $ 103.7 million as of december 31 , 2015 . capital expenditures our operations require investments to expand , upgrade or enhance existing operations and to meet evolving environmental and safety regulations . we distinguish between maintenance and expansion capital expenditures . maintenance capital expenditures ( including expenditures for the construction or development of new capital assets or the replacement , improvement or expansion of existing capital assets ) are made to maintain , over the long term , our operating income or operating capacity . examples of maintenance capital expenditures are expenditures to upgrade and replace mining equipment and to address equipment integrity , safety and environmental laws and regulations . our maintenance capital expenditures do not include actual or estimated capital expenditures for replacement of our trona reserves . expansion capital expenditures are incurred for acquisitions or capital improvements made to increase , over the long term , our operating income or operating capacity . examples of expansion capital expenditures include the acquisition and or construction of complementary assets to grow our business and to expand existing facilities , such as projects that increase production from existing facilities , to the extent such capital expenditures are expected to increase our long-term operating capacity or operating income . the following table below summarizes our capital expenditures , on an accrual basis : replace_table_token_11_th capital expenditures differences during 2016 versus 2015 are partly due to timing of capital expenditure programs in each year , respectively . in addition , our maintenance capex was higher in 2015 versus both 2016 and 2014 due to carryover spending from 2014 projects . 54 story_separator_special_tag style= `` vertical-align : bottom ; background-color : # cceeff ; padding-left:2px ; padding-top:2px ; padding-bottom:2px ; `` > 2.8 % 2.9 % maximum month-end amount outstanding during the period $ 80.0 $ 88.5 $ 125.0 $ 135.0 ( 1 ) weighted average interest rates set forth in the table above include the impacts of our interest rate swap contracts designated as cash flow hedges . as of december 31 , 2016 , the interest rate swap contracts had an aggregate notional value of $ 72.0 million . 55 debt see in part ii , item 8 , financial statements and supplementary data - note 9 , “ debt ” , for details of our outstanding debt . contractual obligations the following table sets forth a summary of our significant contractual obligations as of december 31 , 2016 : replace_table_token_13_th ( 1 ) purchase obligations primarily include agreement to purchase goods or services that are enforceable and legally binding and that specify all significant terms . we have certain long-term utility contracts with various terms extending through 2021. these commitments are designed to assure source of supply for our normal requirements . the amounts include physical and financial natural gas hedge commitments , as well as , purchase obligations under a contract for the transportation of gas , which may be canceled by either upon 12 months ' advance written notice to the other party . ( 2 ) long-term debt interest payments set forth in the table above are based on our contractual rates , or in the case of variable interest rate obligations , the weighted average interest rates as of december 31 , 2016 . ( 3 ) minimum contractual rental commitments of various operating leases , including renewal periods . not included in the table above are the operating lease contracts that ciner corp , on behalf of the partnership , typically enters into with various lessors for railcars to transport product to customer locations and warehouses . rail car leases under these contractual commitments range for periods from 1 to 10 years . ciner corp 's obligation related to these rail car leases are $ 12.5 million in 2017 , $ 11.3 million in 2018 , $ 10.4 million in 2019 , $ 7.8 million in 2020 , $ 5.2 million in 2021 and $ 5.9 million in 2022 and thereafter . ( 4 ) asset retirement obligations are the liability for the present value of cost we estimate we will incur to

cash flows discussion the following is a summary of cash provided by or used in each of the indicated types of activities : replace_table_token_12_th operating activities our operating activities during the year ended december 31 , 2016 provided $ 128.3 million , a decrease of 14.6 % from the $ 150.2 million generated during the year ended december 31 , 2015 primarily as a result of the following : a decrease of 18.7 % in net income during the year ended december 31 , 2016 , compared to prior year ; and a decrease in cash flows provided by working capital of $ 14.2 million during the year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to $ 17.8 million of cash flows provided in working capital in the prior year . our operating activities during the year ended december 31 , 2015 provided $ 150.2 million an increase of 41.6 % over the $ 106.1 million generated during the year ended december 31 , 2014 , primarily as a result of the following : an increase of 15.6 % in net income during the year ended december 31 , 2015 , compared to prior year ; and an increase in cash flows provided by working capital of $ 17.8 million during the year ended december 31 , 2015 compared to $ 9.8 million of cash flows used in in working capital in the prior year , as a result of our working capital reduction initiatives .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```cash flows discussion the following is a summary of cash provided by or used in each of the indicated types of activities : replace_table_token_12_th operating activities our operating activities during the year ended december 31 , 2016 provided $ 128.3 million , a decrease of 14.6 % from the $ 150.2 million generated during the year ended december 31 , 2015 primarily as a result of the following : a decrease of 18.7 % in net income during the year ended december 31 , 2016 , compared to prior year ; and a decrease in cash flows provided by working capital of $ 14.2 million during the year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to $ 17.8 million of cash flows provided in working capital in the prior year . our operating activities during the year ended december 31 , 2015 provided $ 150.2 million an increase of 41.6 % over the $ 106.1 million generated during the year ended december 31 , 2014 , primarily as a result of the following : an increase of 15.6 % in net income during the year ended december 31 , 2015 , compared to prior year ; and an increase in cash flows provided by working capital of $ 17.8 million during the year ended december 31 , 2015 compared to $ 9.8 million of cash flows used in in working capital in the prior year , as a result of our working capital reduction initiatives .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : factors affecting our results of operations soda ash supply and demand our net sales , earnings and cash flow from operations are primarily affected by the global supply of , and demand for soda ash , which , in turn , directly impacts the prices we and other producers charge for our products . demand for soda ash in the united states is driven in large part by general economic growth and activity levels in the end-markets that the glass-making industry serve , such as the automotive and construction industries . because the united states is a well-developed market , we expect that domestic demand levels will remain stable for the near future . because future u.s. capacity growth is expected to come from the four major producers in the green river basin , we also expect that u.s. supply levels will remain relatively stable in the near term . 48 soda ash demand in international markets has continued to grow , although the rate of growth has slowed recently due to sluggish economic growth in emerging markets . we expect that future global economic growth will positively influence global demand , which will likely result in increased exports , primarily from the united states , turkey , and to a limited extent , from china , the largest suppliers of soda ash to international markets . however , in the near term , new supply coming on-line , primarily in turkey , will likely exceed any new growth in demand . most of the new capacity is from trona based sources and therefore lower cost compared to synthetic producers . as a result , we have seen lower net prices in north and south america as some higher cost synthetic producers are taking aggressive price actions to secure multi-national customers in anticipation of lower cost capacity coming on line in turkey in 2017 and 2018. sales mix because demand for soda ash in the united states has remained relatively stable in recent years , we have focused on international markets to expand our business , and we expect to continue to do so in the near future . as a result , our operations have been and continue to be sensitive to fluctuations in freight and shipping costs and changes in international prices , which have historically been more volatile than domestic prices . our gross profit will be impacted by the mix of domestic and international sales as a result of changes in input costs and our average selling prices . in november 2016 , ciner corp , on behalf of ciner wyoming , entered into a soda ash sales agreement with an affiliate of the ciner group that sells soda ash to markets not served by ansac . we are doing this in order to leverage synergies within ciner group and stabilize the supply of soda ash to ciner group 's customers who typically like to contract on an annual calendar year basis . energy costs one of the primary impacts to our profitability is our energy costs . because we depend upon natural gas and electricity to power our trona ore mining and soda ash processing operations , our net sales , earnings and cash flow from operations are sensitive to changes in the prices we pay for these energy sources . our cost of energy , particularly natural gas , has been relatively low in recent years , and , despite the historic volatility of natural gas prices , we believe that we will continue to benefit from relatively low prices in the near future . however , we expect to continue to hedge a portion of our forecasted natural gas purchases to mitigate volatility . see item 7a , “ quantitative and qualitative disclosures about market risk - commodity price risks , ” for additional information . how we evaluate our business productivity of operations our soda ash production volume is primarily dependent on the following three factors : ( 1 ) operating rate , ( 2 ) quality of our mined trona ore and ( 3 ) recovery rates . operating rate is a measure of utilization of the effective production capacity of our facilities and is determined in large part by productivity rates and mechanical on-stream times , which is the percentage of actual run times over the total time scheduled . we implement two planned outages of our mining and surface operations each year , typically in the second and third quarters . during these outages , which last approximately one week , we repair and replace equipment and parts . periodically , we may experience minor unplanned outages caused by various factors , including equipment failures , power outages or service interruptions . the quality of our mine ore is determined by measuring the trona ore recovered as a percentage of the deposit , which includes both trona ore and insolubles . plant recovery rates are generally determined by calculating the soda ash produced divided by the sum of the soda ash produced plus soda ash that is not recovered from the process . all of these factors determine the amount of trona ore we require to produce one short ton of soda ash and liquor , which we refer to as our “ ore to ash ratio . ” our ore to ash ratio for the years ended december 31 , 2016 , 2015 and 2014 , was 1.50 : 1.0 , 1.52 : 1.0 and 1.52 : 1.0 , respectively . freight and logistics the soda ash industry is logistics intensive and involves careful management of freight and logistics costs . these freight costs make up a large portion of the total delivered cost to the customer . story_separator_special_tag on january 12 , 2017 , the partnership declared its fourth quarter 2016 quarterly distribution . the quarterly cash distribution of $ 0.5670 per unit was paid on february 13 , 2017 to unitholders of record on january 31 , 2017 . see part ii , item 8 , financial statements and supplementary data - note 3 , “ net income per unit and cash distribution ” , for more information . we intend to pay a sustainable quarterly distribution and continue to grow our quarterly distribution to unitholders of record over time , to the extent we have sufficient cash from our operations after establishment of cash reserves and payment of fees and expenses , including payments to our general partner and its affiliates . we do not have a legal obligation to pay this distribution . capital requirements working capital is the amount by which current assets exceed current liabilities . our working capital requirements have been , and will continue to be , primarily driven by changes in accounts receivable and accounts payable , which generally fluctuate with changes in volumes , contract terms and market prices of soda ash in the normal course of our business . other factors impacting changes in accounts receivable and accounts payable could include the timing of collections from customers and payments to suppliers , as well as the level of spending for maintenance and growth capital expenditures . a material adverse change in operations or available financing under the revolving credit facility and the ciner wyoming credit facility could impact our ability to fund our requirements for liquidity and capital resources . historically , we have not made working capital borrowings to finance our operations . as of december 31 , 2016 , we had a working capital surplus of $ 80.6 million as compared to a working capital surplus of $ 103.7 million as of december 31 , 2015 . capital expenditures our operations require investments to expand , upgrade or enhance existing operations and to meet evolving environmental and safety regulations . we distinguish between maintenance and expansion capital expenditures . maintenance capital expenditures ( including expenditures for the construction or development of new capital assets or the replacement , improvement or expansion of existing capital assets ) are made to maintain , over the long term , our operating income or operating capacity . examples of maintenance capital expenditures are expenditures to upgrade and replace mining equipment and to address equipment integrity , safety and environmental laws and regulations . our maintenance capital expenditures do not include actual or estimated capital expenditures for replacement of our trona reserves . expansion capital expenditures are incurred for acquisitions or capital improvements made to increase , over the long term , our operating income or operating capacity . examples of expansion capital expenditures include the acquisition and or construction of complementary assets to grow our business and to expand existing facilities , such as projects that increase production from existing facilities , to the extent such capital expenditures are expected to increase our long-term operating capacity or operating income . the following table below summarizes our capital expenditures , on an accrual basis : replace_table_token_11_th capital expenditures differences during 2016 versus 2015 are partly due to timing of capital expenditure programs in each year , respectively . in addition , our maintenance capex was higher in 2015 versus both 2016 and 2014 due to carryover spending from 2014 projects . 54 story_separator_special_tag style= `` vertical-align : bottom ; background-color : # cceeff ; padding-left:2px ; padding-top:2px ; padding-bottom:2px ; `` > 2.8 % 2.9 % maximum month-end amount outstanding during the period $ 80.0 $ 88.5 $ 125.0 $ 135.0 ( 1 ) weighted average interest rates set forth in the table above include the impacts of our interest rate swap contracts designated as cash flow hedges . as of december 31 , 2016 , the interest rate swap contracts had an aggregate notional value of $ 72.0 million . 55 debt see in part ii , item 8 , financial statements and supplementary data - note 9 , “ debt ” , for details of our outstanding debt . contractual obligations the following table sets forth a summary of our significant contractual obligations as of december 31 , 2016 : replace_table_token_13_th ( 1 ) purchase obligations primarily include agreement to purchase goods or services that are enforceable and legally binding and that specify all significant terms . we have certain long-term utility contracts with various terms extending through 2021. these commitments are designed to assure source of supply for our normal requirements . the amounts include physical and financial natural gas hedge commitments , as well as , purchase obligations under a contract for the transportation of gas , which may be canceled by either upon 12 months ' advance written notice to the other party . ( 2 ) long-term debt interest payments set forth in the table above are based on our contractual rates , or in the case of variable interest rate obligations , the weighted average interest rates as of december 31 , 2016 . ( 3 ) minimum contractual rental commitments of various operating leases , including renewal periods . not included in the table above are the operating lease contracts that ciner corp , on behalf of the partnership , typically enters into with various lessors for railcars to transport product to customer locations and warehouses . rail car leases under these contractual commitments range for periods from 1 to 10 years . ciner corp 's obligation related to these rail car leases are $ 12.5 million in 2017 , $ 11.3 million in 2018 , $ 10.4 million in 2019 , $ 7.8 million in 2020 , $ 5.2 million in 2021 and $ 5.9 million in 2022 and thereafter . ( 4 ) asset retirement obligations are the liability for the present value of cost we estimate we will incur to

