relating to development of our properties, which in turn could lead to a decline in our reserves and production and would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. 

## A negative shift in investor sentiment towards the oil and gas industry could adversely affect our ability to raise equity and debt capital. 

Certain segments of the investor community have recently developed negative sentiment towards investing in our industry. Recent equity returns in the sector versus other industry sectors have led to lower oil and gas representation in certain key equity market indices. Some investors, including certain pension funds, university endowments and family foundations, have stated policies to reduce or eliminate their investments in the oil and gas sector based on social and environment considerations. Certain other stakeholders have pressured commercial and investment banks to stop funding oil and gas projects. Such developments could result in downward pressure on the stock prices of oil and gas companies, including ours. This may also result in a reduction of available capital funding for potential development projects, further impacting our future financial results. 

## We have incremental cash inflows and outflows as a result of our hedging activities. To the extent we are unable to obtain future hedges at attractive prices or our derivative activities are not effective, our cash flows and financial condition may be adversely impacted. 

In an effort to achieve more predictable cash flows and reduce our exposure to adverse fluctuations in the prices of oil and natural gas, we often enter into derivative instrument contracts for a portion of our oil and natural gas production, including swaps, collars, puts and basis swaps. We recognize all derivatives as either assets or liabilities, measured at fair value, and recognize changes in the fair value of derivatives in current earnings. Accordingly, our earnings may fluctuate significantly and our results of operations may be significantly and adversely affected because of changes in the fair market value of our derivative instruments. As our derivative instrument contracts expire, there is no assurance that we will be able to replace them comparably. 

Derivative instruments can expose us to the risk of financial loss in varying circumstances, including, but not limited to, when: 

• production is less than the volume covered by the derivative instruments; 

• the counter-party to the derivative instrument defaults on its contractual obligations; 

• there is an increase in the differential between the underlying price stated in the derivative instrument contract and actual prices received; or 

• there are issues with regard to legal enforceability of such instruments. 

For additional information regarding our hedging activities, please see Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations  and Note 6. Derivative Financial Instruments  in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this report for additional information. 

## Derivatives reform legislation and related regulations could have an adverse effect on our ability to hedge risks associated with our business. 

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act") provides for federal oversight of the over-the-counter derivatives market and entities that participate in that market and mandates that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the "CFTC"), the SEC, and federal regulators of financial institutions adopt rules or regulations implementing the Dodd-Frank Act and providing definitions of terms used in the Dodd-Frank Act. 

The CFTC has finalized other regulations implementing the Dodd-Frank Act's provisions regarding trade reporting, margin, clearing, and trade execution; however, some regulations remain to be finalized and it is not possible at this time to predict when the CFTC will adopt final rules. For example, the CFTC has re-proposed regulations setting position limits for certain futures and option contracts in the major energy markets and for swaps that are their economic equivalents. Certain bona fide hedging transactions are expected to be made exempt from these limits. Also, it is possible that under recently adopted margin rules, some registered swap dealers may require us to post initial and variation margins in connection with certain swaps not subject to central clearing. 

The Dodd-Frank Act and any additional implementing regulations could significantly increase the cost of some commodity derivative contracts (including through requirements to post collateral, which could adversely affect our available liquidity), materially alter the terms of some commodity derivative contracts, limit our ability to trade some derivatives to hedge risks, reduce the availability of some derivatives to protect against risks we encounter, and reduce our ability to monetize or restructure our existing commodity derivative contracts. If we reduce our use of derivatives as a consequence, our results of operations may become more volatile and our cash flows may be less predictable, which could adversely affect our ability to plan for and fund capital expenditures. Increased volatility may make us less attractive to certain types of investors. Finally, the Dodd-Frank Act was intended, in part, to reduce the volatility of oil and natural gas prices, which some legislators attributed to speculative trading 

