Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
Our principal market risks are our exposure to changes in commodity prices, particularly to the prices of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil, changes in interest rates, as well as nonperformance by our customers.
Risk Management
We evaluate counterparty risks related to our commodity derivative contracts and trade credit. All of our commodity derivatives are with major financial institutions or major energy companies. Should any of these financial counterparties not perform, we may not realize the benefit of some of our hedges under lower commodity prices, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We sell our natural gas, NGLs and condensate to a variety of purchasers. Non-performance by a trade creditor could result in losses.
Crude oil, NGL and natural gas prices are volatile. In an effort to reduce the variability of our cash flows, we have entered into derivative instruments to hedge the commodity price associated with a portion of our expected natural gas, NGL and condensate equity volumes, future commodity purchases and sales, and transportation basis risk through 2027. Market conditions may also impact our ability to enter into future commodity derivative contracts.
Commodity Price Risk
A portion of our revenues are derived from percent-of-proceeds contracts under which we receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of commodities as payment for services. The prices of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil are subject to fluctuations in response to changes in supply, demand, market uncertainty and a variety of additional factors beyond our control. We monitor these risks and enter into hedging transactions designed to mitigate the impact of commodity price fluctuations on our business. Cash flows from a derivative instrument designated as a hedge are classified in the same category as the cash flows from the item being hedged.
The primary purpose of our commodity risk management activities is to hedge some of the exposure to commodity price risk and reduce fluctuations in our operating cash flow due to fluctuations in commodity prices. In an effort to reduce the variability of our cash flows, as of June 30, 2022, we have hedged the commodity price associated with a portion of our expected (i) natural gas, NGL, and condensate equity volumes in our Gathering and Processing operations that result from our percent-of-proceeds processing arrangements, (ii) future commodity purchases and sales in our Logistics and Transportation segment and (iii) natural gas transportation basis risk in our Logistics and Transportation segment. We hedge a higher percentage of our expected equity volumes in the current year compared to future years, for which we hedge incrementally lower percentages of expected equity volumes. We also enter into commodity financial instruments to help manage other short-term commodity-related business risks of our ongoing operations and in conjunction with marketing opportunities available to us in the operations of our logistics and transportation assets. With swaps, we typically receive an agreed fixed price for a specified notional quantity of commodities and we pay the hedge counterparty a floating price for that same quantity based upon published index prices. Since we receive from our customers substantially the same floating index price from the sale of the underlying physical commodity, these transactions are designed to effectively lock-in the agreed fixed price in advance for the volumes hedged. In order to avoid having a greater volume hedged than our actual equity volumes, we typically limit our use of swaps to hedge the prices of less than our expected equity volumes. We utilize purchased puts (or floors) and calls (or caps) to hedge additional expected equity commodity volumes without creating volumetric risk. We may buy calls in connection with swap positions to create a price floor with upside. We intend to continue to manage our exposure to commodity prices in the future by entering into derivative transactions using swaps, collars, purchased puts (or floors), futures or other derivative instruments as market conditions permit.
When entering into new hedges, we intend to generally match the NGL product composition and the NGL and natural gas delivery points to those of our physical equity volumes. The NGL hedges cover specific NGL products based upon the expected equity NGL composition. We believe this strategy avoids uncorrelated risks resulting from employing hedges on crude oil or other petroleum products as “proxy” hedges of NGL prices. The fair value of our natural gas and NGL hedges are based on published index prices for delivery at various locations, which closely approximate the actual natural gas and NGL delivery points. A portion of our condensate sales are hedged using crude oil hedges that are based on the NYMEX futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate light, sweet crude.
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A majority of these commodity price hedges are documented pursuant to a standard International Swap Dealers Association form with customized credit and legal terms. The principal counterparties (or, if applicable, their guarantors) have investment grade credit ratings. While we have no current obligation to post cash, letters of credit or other additional collateral to secure these hedges so long as we maintain our current credit rating, we could be obligated to post collateral to secure the hedges in the event of an adverse change in our creditworthiness where a counterparty’s exposure to our credit increases over the term of the hedge as a result of higher commodity prices. A purchased put (or floor) transaction does not expose our counterparties to credit risk, as we have no obligation to make future payments beyond the premium paid to enter into the transaction; however, we are exposed to the risk of default by the counterparty, which is the risk that the counterparty will not honor its obligation under the put transaction.
We also enter into commodity price hedging transactions using futures contracts on futures exchanges. Exchange traded futures are subject to exchange margin requirements, so we may have to increase our cash deposit due to a rise in natural gas, NGL or crude oil prices. Unlike bilateral hedges, we are not subject to counterparty credit risks when using futures on futures exchanges.
These contracts may expose us to the risk of financial loss in certain circumstances. Generally, our hedging arrangements provide us protection on the hedged volumes if prices decline below the prices at which these hedges are set. If prices rise above the prices at which they have been hedged, we will receive less revenue on the hedged volumes than we would receive in the absence of hedges (other than with respect to purchased calls).
To analyze the risk associated with our derivative instruments, we utilize a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis measures the change in fair value of our derivative instruments based on a hypothetical 10% change in the underlying commodity prices, but does not reflect the impact that the same hypothetical price movement would have on the related hedged items. The financial statement impact on the fair value of a derivative instrument resulting from a change in commodity price would normally be offset by a corresponding gain or loss on the hedged item under hedge accounting. The fair values of our derivative instruments are also influenced by changes in market volatility for option contracts and the discount rates used to determine the present values.
The following table shows the effect of hypothetical price movements on the estimated fair value of our derivative instruments as of June 30, 2022:
Fair Value
Result of 10% Price Decrease
Result of 10% Price Increase
(In millions)
Natural gas
$
(265.5
)
$
(176.4
)
$
(354.6
)
NGLs
(209.7
)
(101.4
)
(318.0
)
Crude oil
(81.3
)
(43.9
)
(118.7
)
Total
$
(556.5
)
$
(321.7
)
$
(791.3
)
The table above contains all derivative instruments outstanding as of the stated date for the purpose of hedging commodity price risk, which we are exposed to due to our equity volumes and future commodity purchases and sales, as well as basis differentials related to our gas transportation arrangements.
Our operating revenues decreased by ($176.7) million and ($110.2) million during the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 and ($499.6) million and ($245.0) million during the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, as a result of transactions accounted for as derivatives. The estimated fair value of our risk management position has moved from a net liability position of ($316.7) million at December 31, 2021 to ($556.5) million at June 30, 2022. Forward commodity prices have moved unfavorably relative to the fixed prices on our derivative contracts, creating this net liability position.
Interest Rate Risk
We are exposed to the risk of changes in interest rates, primarily as a result of variable rate borrowings under the TRGP Revolver, the Securitization Facility, and the Term Loan Facility, which we closed in July 2022 to fund a portion of the Lucid Acquisition. As of June 30, 2022, we do not have any interest rate hedges. However, we may enter into interest rate hedges in the future with the intent to mitigate the impact of changes in interest rates on cash flows. To the extent that interest rates increase, interest expense for the TRGP Revolver, the Securitization Facility and the Term Loan Facility will also increase. As of June 30, 2022, we had $950.0 million in outstanding variable rate borrowings. A hypothetical change of 100 basis points in the rate of our variable interest rate debt would impact our consolidated annual interest expense by $9.5 million based on our June 30, 2022 debt balances.
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Counterparty Credit Risk
We are subject to risk of losses resulting from nonpayment or nonperformance by our counterparties. The credit exposure related to commodity derivative instruments is represented by the fair value of the asset position (i.e. the fair value of expected future receipts) at the reporting date. Our futures contracts have limited credit risk since they are cleared through an exchange and are margined daily. Should the creditworthiness of one or more of the counterparties decline, our ability to mitigate nonperformance risk is limited to a counterparty agreeing to either a voluntary termination and subsequent cash settlement or a novation of the derivative contract to a third party. In the event of a counterparty default, we may sustain a loss and our cash receipts could be negatively impacted. We have master netting provisions in the International Swap Dealers Association agreements with our derivative counterparties. These netting provisions allow us to net settle asset and liability positions with the same counterparties within the same Targa entity. As of June 30, 2022, our maximum loss due to counterparty credit risk was immaterial. The range of losses attributable to our individual counterparties as of June 30, 2022 would be between $2.7 million and $5.5 million, depending on the counterparty in default.
Customer Credit Risk
We extend credit to customers and other parties in the normal course of business. We have established various procedures to manage our credit exposure, including performing initial and subsequent credit risk analyses, setting maximum credit limits and terms and requiring credit enhancements when necessary. We use credit enhancements including (but not limited to) letters of credit, prepayments, parental guarantees and rights of offset to limit credit risk to ensure that our established credit criteria are followed and financial loss is mitigated or minimized.
We have an active credit management process, which is focused on controlling loss exposure due to bankruptcies or other liquidity issues of counterparties. Our allowance for doubtful accounts was $0.1 million as of both June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. Changes in the allowance for doubtful accounts were not material for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022.
No customer comprised 10% or greater of our consolidated revenues during the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 , respectively .
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