CONOCOPHILLIPS | 2013 | FY |

Note 13—Guarantees

At December 31, 2013, we were liable for certain contingent obligations under various contractual arrangements as described below. We recognize a liability at inception for the fair value of our obligation as a guarantor for newly issued or modified guarantees. Unless the carrying amount of the liability is noted below, we have not recognized a liability either because the guarantees were issued prior to December 31, 2002, or because the fair value of the obligation is immaterial. In addition, unless otherwise stated, we are not currently performing with any significance under the guarantee and expect future performance to be either immaterial or have only a remote chance of occurrence.

APLNG Guarantees

At December 31, 2013, we have outstanding multiple guarantees in connection with our 37.5 percent ownership interest in APLNG. The following is a description of the guarantees with values calculated utilizing December 2013 exchange rates:

• We have guaranteed APLNG's performance with regard to a construction contract executed in connection with APLNG's issuance of the Train 1 and Train 2 Notices to Proceed. We estimate the remaining term of this guarantee is 3 years. Our maximum potential amount of future payments related to this guarantee is approximately $130 million and would become payable if APLNG cancels the applicable construction contract and does not perform with respect to the amounts owed to the contractor.

   

• We have issued a construction completion guarantee related to the third-party project financing secured by APLNG. Our maximum potential amount of future payments under the guarantee is estimated to be $3.2 billion, which could be payable if the full debt financing capacity is utilized and completion of the project is not achieved. Our guarantee of the project financing will be released upon meeting certain completion tests with milestones, which we estimate would occur beginning in 2016. Our maximum exposure at December 31, 2013, is $2.8 billion based upon our pro-rata share of the facility used at that date. At December 31, 2013, the carrying value of this guarantee is approximately $114 million.

   

• In conjunction with our original purchase of an ownership interest in APLNG from Origin Energy in October 2008, we agreed to guarantee an existing obligation of APLNG to deliver natural gas under several sales agreements with remaining terms of 3 to 18 years. Our maximum potential amount of future payments, or cost of volume delivery, under these guarantees is estimated to be $0.8 billion ($1.9 billion in the event of intentional or reckless breach) and would become payable if APLNG fails to meet its obligations under these agreements and the obligations cannot otherwise be mitigated. Future payments are considered unlikely, as the payments, or cost of volume delivery, would only be triggered if APLNG does not have enough natural gas to meet these sales commitments and if the co-venturers do not make necessary equity contributions into APLNG.

• We have guaranteed the performance of APLNG with regard to certain other contracts executed in connection with the project's continued development. The guarantees have remaining terms of up to 32 years or the life of the venture. Our maximum potential amount of future payments related to these guarantees is approximately $170 million and would become payable if APLNG does not perform.

Other Guarantees

We have other guarantees with maximum future potential payment amounts totaling approximately $260 million, which consist primarily of guarantees of the residual value of leased corporate aircraft, guarantees to fund the short-term cash liquidity deficit of two joint ventures, a guarantee for our portion of a joint venture's debt obligations and a guarantee of minimum charter revenue for an LNG vessel. These guarantees have remaining terms of up to 10 years or the life of the venture and would become payable if, upon sale, certain asset values are lower than guaranteed amounts, business conditions decline at guaranteed entities, or as a result of non-performance of contractual terms by guaranteed parties.

Indemnifications

Over the years, we have entered into agreements to sell ownership interests in certain corporations, joint ventures and assets that gave rise to qualifying indemnifications. These agreements include indemnifications for taxes, environmental liabilities, employee claims, and litigation. The terms of these indemnifications vary greatly. The majority of these indemnifications are related to environmental issues, the term is generally indefinite and the maximum amount of future payments is generally unlimited. The carrying amount recorded for these indemnifications at December 31, 2013, was approximately $60 million. We amortize the indemnification liability over the relevant time period, if one exists, based on the facts and circumstances surrounding each type of indemnity. In cases where the indemnification term is indefinite, we will reverse the liability when we have information the liability is essentially relieved or amortize the liability over an appropriate time period as the fair value of our indemnification exposure declines. Although it is reasonably possible future payments may exceed amounts recorded, due to the nature of the indemnifications, it is not possible to make a reasonable estimate of the maximum potential amount of future payments. Included in the recorded carrying amount at December 31, 2013 were approximately $50 million of environmental accruals for known contamination that are included in the “Asset retirement obligations and accrued environmental costs” line on our consolidated balance sheet. For additional information about environmental liabilities, see Note 14—Contingencies and Commitments.

In connection with the separation of the Downstream business, the Company entered into an Indemnification and Release Agreement with Phillips 66. This agreement provided for cross-indemnities between Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips and established procedures for handling claims subject to indemnification and related matters. We evaluated the impact of the indemnifications given and the Phillips 66 indemnifications received as of the separation date and concluded those fair values were immaterial.

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