OKE, §1A diff (2018 → 2019)

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS Our investors should consider the following risks that could affect us and our business. Although we have tried to identify key factors, our investors need to be aware that other risks may prove to be important in the future. New risks may emerge at any time, and we cannot predict such risks or estimate the extent to which they may affect our financial performance. Investors should consider carefully the following discussion of risks and the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report, including “Forward-Looking Statements,” which are included in Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. RISKS INHERENT IN OUR BUSINESS If the level of drilling in the regions in which we operate declines substantially near our assets, our volumes and revenues could decline. Our gathering and transportation pipeline systems are connected to, and dependent on the level of production from, natural gas and crude oil wells, from which production will naturally decline over time. As a result, our cash flows associated with these wells will also decline over time. In order to maintain or increase throughput levels on our gathering and transportation pipeline systems and the asset utilization rates at our processing and fractionation plants, we must continually obtain new supplies. Our ability to maintain or expand our businesses depends largely on the level of drilling and production by third parties in the regions in which we operate. Our natural gas and NGL supply volumes may be impacted if producers curtail or redirect drilling and production activities. Drilling and production are impacted by factors beyond our control, including: • demand and prices for natural gas, NGLs and crude oil; • producers’ access to capital; • producers’ finding and development costs of reserves; • producers’ desire and ability to obtain necessary permits in a timely manner; • natural gas field characteristics and production performance; • surface access, requirements to secure drilling rights and infrastructure issues; and • capacity constraints on natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids infrastructure from the producing areas and our facilities. Commodity prices have experienced significant volatility. Drilling and production activity levels may vary across our geographic areas; however, a prolonged period of low commodity prices may reduce drilling and production activities across all areas. If we are not able to obtain new supplies to replace the natural decline in volumes from existing wells or because of competition, throughput on our gathering and transportation pipeline systems and the utilization rates of our processing and fractionation facilities would decline, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows, and our ability to pay cash dividends. Continued development of supply sources outside of our operating regions could impact demand for our services. Natural gas production areas outside of our operating regions near certain market areas that we serve may compete with natural gas originating in production areas connected to our systems. For example, the Marcellus Shale may cause natural gas in supply areas connected to our systems to be diverted to markets other than our traditional market areas and may affect capacity utilization adversely on our pipeline systems and our ability to renew or replace existing contracts at rates sufficient to maintain current revenues and cash flows. In addition, supply volumes from other natural gas production areas may compete with and displace volumes from the Mid-Continent, Permian, Rocky Mountains and Canadian supply sources in certain of our markets. In our Natural Gas Gathering and Processing segment, the development of reserves could move drilling rigs from our current service areas to other areas, which may reduce demand for our services. In our Natural Gas Pipelines segment, the displacement of natural gas originating in supply areas connected to our pipeline systems by supply sources that are closer to the end-use markets could result in lower transportation revenues, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Market volatility and capital availability could affect adversely our business. The capital and global credit markets have experienced volatility and disruption in the past. In many cases during these periods, the capital markets have exerted downward pressure on equity values and reduced the credit capacity for certain companies. Much of our business is capital intensive, and our ability to grow is dependent, in part, upon our ability to access capital at rates and on terms we determine to be attractive. Similar or more severe levels of global market disruption and volatility may have an adverse effect on us resulting from, but not limited to, disruption of our access to capital and credit markets, difficulty in obtaining financing necessary to expand facilities or acquire assets, increased financing costs and increasingly restrictive covenants. If we are unable to access capital at competitive rates, our strategy of enhancing the earnings potential of our existing assets, including through capital-growth projects and acquisitions of complementary assets or businesses, may be affected adversely. A number of factors could affect adversely our ability to access capital, including: (i) general economic conditions; (ii) capital market conditions; (iii) market prices for natural gas, NGLs and other hydrocarbons; (iv) the overall health of the energy and related industries; (v) ability to maintain investment-grade credit ratings; (vi) share price and (vii) capital structure. If our ability to access capital becomes constrained significantly, our interest costs and cost of equity will likely increase and could affect adversely our financial condition and future results of operations. Our operating results may be affected materially and adversely by unfavorable economic and market conditions. Economic conditions worldwide have from time to time contributed to slowdowns in the crude oil and natural gas industry, as well as in the specific segments and markets in which we operate, resulting in reduced demand and increased price competition for our products and services. Our operating results in one or more geographic regions may also be affected by uncertain or changing economic conditions within that region. Volatility in commodity prices may have an impact on many of our customers, which, in turn, could have a negative impact on their ability to meet their obligations to us. If global economic and market conditions (including volatility in commodity markets) or economic conditions in the United States or other key markets remain uncertain or persist, spread or deteriorate further, we may experience material impacts on our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. Increased competition could have a significant adverse financial impact on our business. The natural gas and natural gas liquids industries are expected to remain highly competitive. The demand for natural gas and NGLs is primarily a function of commodity prices, including prices for alternative energy sources, customer usage rates, weather, economic conditions and service costs. Our ability to compete also depends on a number of other factors, including competition from other companies for our existing customers; the efficiency, quality and reliability of the services we provide; and competition for throughput at our gathering systems, pipelines, processing plants, fractionators and storage facilities. Increased regulation of exploration and production activities, including hydraulic fracturing and disposal of waste water, could result in reductions or delays in drilling and completing new crude oil and natural gas wells, which could impact adversely our earnings by decreasing the volumes of natural gas and NGLs transported on our or our joint ventures’ natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines. The natural gas industry is relying increasingly on natural gas supplies from nonconventional sources, such as shale and tight sands. Natural gas extracted from these sources frequently requires hydraulic fracturing, which involves the pressurized injection of water, sand and chemicals into a geologic formation to stimulate crude oil and natural gas production. Legislation or regulations placing restrictions on exploration and production activities, including hydraulic fracturing and disposal of waste water, could impose operational delays, increase operating costs and additional regulatory burdens on exploration and production operators, which could reduce their production of unprocessed natural gas and, in turn, affect adversely our revenues and results of operations by decreasing the volumes of unprocessed natural gas and NGLs gathered, treated, processed, fractionated and transported on our or our joint ventures’ natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines, which primarily gather unprocessed natural gas from areas where the use of hydraulic fracturing is prevalent. In the competition for supply, we may have significant levels of excess capacity on our natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation and storage assets. Our natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation and storage assets compete with other pipelines, processing, fractionation and storage facilities for natural gas and NGL supply delivered to the markets we serve. As a result of competition, we may have significant levels of uncontracted or discounted capacity on our pipelines, processing, fractionation and in our storage assets, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and cash flows. We may not be able to replace, extend or add additional contracted volumes on favorable terms, or at all, which could affect our financial condition, the amount of cash available to pay dividends and our ability to grow. Although many of our customers and suppliers are subject to long-term contracts, if we are unable to replace or extend such contracts, add additional customers and suppliers or otherwise increase the contracted volumes of natural gas and NGLs provided to us by current producers, our financial condition, growth plans and the amount of cash available to pay dividends could be affected adversely. Our ability to replace, extend or add additional customer or supplier contracts, or increase contracted volumes of natural gas and NGLs from current producers, on favorable terms, or at all, is subject to a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including: • the level of existing and new competition in our businesses or from alternative fuel sources, such as electricity, fuel oils or nuclear energy; • natural gas and NGL prices, demand, availability; and • margins in our markets. We may face opposition to the construction or operation of our pipelines and facilities from various groups. We may face opposition to the construction or operation of our pipelines and facilities from environmental groups, landowners, tribal groups, local groups and other advocates. Such opposition could take many forms, including organized protests, attempts to block or sabotage our construction activities or operations, intervention in regulatory or administrative proceedings involving our assets, or lawsuits or other actions designed to prevent, disrupt or delay the construction or operation of our assets and business. For example, constructing our pipelines often involves securing consent from individual landowners to access their property; one or more landowners may resist our efforts, which could lead to delays in the construction of assets for a period of time that is significantly longer than would have otherwise been the case. In addition, acts of sabotage or terrorism could cause significant damage or injury to people, property or the environment or lead to extended interruptions of our operations. Any such event that delays or interrupts the construction or operation of assets or revenues generated by our existing operations, or which causes us to make significant expenditures not covered by insurance, could affect adversely our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and our share price. Growing our business by constructing new pipelines and plants or making modifications to our existing facilities subjects us to construction risk and supply risks, should adequate natural gas or NGL supply be unavailable upon completion of the facilities. One of the ways we may grow our businesses is through the construction of new pipelines and new gathering, processing, storage and fractionation facilities and through modifications to our existing pipelines and existing gathering, processing, storage and fractionation facilities. The construction and modification of pipelines and gathering, processing, storage and fractionation facilities may face the following risks: • projects may require significant capital expenditures, which may exceed our estimates, and involves numerous regulatory, environmental, political, legal and weather-related uncertainties; • projects may increase demand for labor, materials and rights of way, which may, in turn, affect our costs and schedule; • we may be unable to obtain new rights of way to connect new natural gas or NGL supplies to our existing gathering or transportation pipelines; • if we undertake these projects, we may not be able to complete them on schedule or at the budgeted cost; • our revenues may not increase immediately upon the expenditure of funds on a particular project. For instance, if we build a new pipeline, the construction will occur over an extended period of time, and we will not receive any material increases in revenues until after completion of the project; • we may construct facilities to capture anticipated future growth in production in a region in which anticipated production growth does not materialize; and • we may be required to rely on third parties downstream of our facilities to have available capacity for our delivered natural gas or NGLs, which may not yet be operational. As a result, new facilities may not be able to attract enough natural gas or NGLs to achieve our expected investment return, which could affect materially and adversely our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Estimates of hydrocarbon reserves may be inaccurate which could result in lower than anticipated volumes. We may not be able to accurately estimate hydrocarbon reserves and production volumes expected to be delivered to us for a variety of reasons, including the unavailability of sufficiently detailed information and unanticipated changes in producers’ expected drilling schedules. Accordingly, we may not have accurate estimates of total reserves serviced by our assets, the anticipated life of such reserves or the expected volumes to be produced from those reserves. In such event, if we are unable to secure additional sources, then the volumes that we gather or process in the future could be less than anticipated. A decline in such volumes could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. The volatility of natural gas, crude oil and NGL prices could affect adversely our earnings and cash flows. A significant portion of our revenues are derived from the sale of commodities that are received in conjunction with natural gas gathering and processing services, the transportation and storage of natural gas, and from the purchase and sale of NGLs and NGL products. Commodity prices have been volatile and are likely to continue to be so in the future. The prices we receive for our commodities are subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors beyond our control, including, but not limited to, the following: • overall domestic and global economic conditions; • relatively minor changes in the supply of, and demand for, domestic and foreign energy; • market uncertainty; • the availability and cost of third-party transportation, natural gas processing and fractionation capacity; • the level of consumer product demand and storage inventory levels; • ethane rejection; • geopolitical conditions impacting supply and demand for natural gas, NGLs and crude oil; • weather conditions; • domestic and foreign governmental regulations and taxes; • the price and availability of alternative fuels; • speculation in the commodity futures markets; • the effects of imports and exports on the price of natural gas, crude oil, NGL and liquefied natural gas; • the effect of worldwide energy-conservation measures; • the impact of new supplies, new pipelines, processing and fractionation facilities on location price differentials; and • technology and improved efficiency impacting supply and demand for natural gas, NGLs and crude oil. These external factors and the volatile nature of the energy markets make it difficult to reliably estimate future prices of commodities and the impact commodity price fluctuations have on our customers and their need for our services, which could have a material adverse effect on our earnings and cash flows. As commodity prices decline, we could be paid less for our commodities, thereby reducing our cash flows. In addition, crude oil, natural gas and NGL production could also decline due to lower prices. Our operations are subject to operational hazards and unforeseen interruptions, which could affect materially and adversely our business and for which we may not be adequately insured. Our operations are subject to all of the risks and hazards typically associated with the operation of natural gas and natural gas liquids gathering, transportation and distribution pipelines, storage facilities and processing and fractionation plants. Operating risks include, but are not limited to, leaks, pipeline ruptures, the breakdown or failure of equipment or processes and the performance of pipeline facilities below expected levels of capacity and efficiency. Other operational hazards and unforeseen interruptions include adverse weather conditions, accidents, explosions, fires, the collision of equipment with our pipeline facilities (for example, this may occur if a third party were to perform excavation or construction work near our facilities) and catastrophic events such as tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods or other similar events beyond our control. It is also possible that our facilities could be direct targets or indirect casualties of an act of terrorism. A casualty occurrence might result in injury or loss of life, extensive property damage or environmental damage. Liabilities incurred and interruptions to the operations of our pipeline or other facilities caused by such an event could reduce revenues generated by us and increase expenses, thereby impairing our ability to meet our obligations. Insurance proceeds may not be adequate to cover all liabilities or expenses incurred or revenues lost, and we are not fully insured against all risks inherent to our business. As a result of market conditions, premiums and deductibles for certain insurance policies can increase substantially, and, in some instances, certain insurance may become unavailable or available only for reduced amounts of coverage. Consequently, we may not be able to renew existing insurance policies or purchase other desirable insurance on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. If we were to incur a significant liability for which we were not fully insured, it could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, cash flows and results of operations. Further, the proceeds of any such insurance may not be paid in a timely manner and may be insufficient if such an event were to occur. We may not be able to develop and execute growth projects and acquire new assets, which could result in reduced dividends to our shareholders. Our ability to maintain and grow our dividends paid to our shareholders depends on the growth of our existing businesses and strategic acquisitions. Our ability to make strategic acquisitions and investments will depend on: • the extent to which acquisitions and investment opportunities become available; • our success in bidding for the opportunities that do become available; • regulatory approval, if required, of the acquisitions or investments on favorable terms; and • our access to capital, including our ability to use our equity in acquisitions or investments, and the terms upon which we obtain capital. Our ability to develop and execute growth projects will depend on our ability to implement business development opportunities and finance such activities on economically acceptable terms. If we are unable to make strategic acquisitions and investments, integrate successfully businesses that we acquire with our existing business, or develop and execute our growth projects, our future growth will be limited, which could impact adversely our results of operations and cash flows and, accordingly, result in reduced cash dividends over time. Acquisitions that appear to be accretive may nevertheless reduce our cash from operations on a per-share basis. Any acquisition involves potential risks that may include, among other things: • inaccurate assumptions about volumes, revenues and costs, including potential synergies; • an inability to integrate successfully the businesses we acquire; • decrease in our liquidity as a result of our using a significant portion of our available cash or borrowing capacity to finance the acquisition; • a significant increase in our interest expense and/or financial leverage if we incur additional debt to finance the acquisition; • the assumption of unknown liabilities for which we are not indemnified, our indemnity is inadequate or our insurance policies may exclude from coverage; • an inability to hire, train or retain qualified personnel to manage and operate the acquired business and assets; • limitations on rights to indemnity from the seller; • inaccurate assumptions about the overall costs of equity or debt; • the diversion of management’s and employees’ attention from other business concerns; • unforeseen difficulties operating in new product areas or new geographic areas; • increased regulatory burdens; • customer or key employee losses at an acquired business; and • increased regulatory requirements. If we consummate any future acquisitions, our capitalization and results of operations may change significantly, and investors will not have the opportunity to evaluate the economic, financial and other relevant information that we will consider in determining the application of our resources to future acquisitions. Mergers between our customers, suppliers and competitors could result in lower volumes being gathered, processed, fractionated, transported or stored on our assets, thereby reducing the amount of cash we generate. Mergers between our existing customers, suppliers and our competitors could provide strong economic incentives for the combined entities to utilize their existing gathering, processing, fractionation and/or transportation systems instead of ours in those markets where the systems compete. As a result, we could lose some or all of the volumes and associated revenues from these counterparties, and we could experience difficulty in replacing those lost volumes. A reduction in volumes could result not only in lower net income but also in a decline in cash flows, which would reduce our ability to pay cash dividends to our shareholders. We do not own all of the land on which our pipelines and facilities are located, and we lease certain facilities and equipment, which could disrupt our operations. We do not own all of the land on which certain of our pipelines and facilities are located, and we are, therefore, subject to the risk of increased costs to maintain necessary land use. We obtain the rights to construct and operate certain of our pipelines and related facilities on land owned by third parties and governmental agencies for a specific period of time. Our loss of these rights, through our inability to renew right-of-way contracts on acceptable terms or increased costs to renew such rights, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Terrorist attacks directed at our facilities could affect adversely our business. The United States government has issued warnings that energy assets, specifically the nation’s pipeline infrastructure, may be future targets of terrorist organizations. These developments may subject our operations to increased risks. Any future terrorist attack that may target our facilities, those of our customers and, in some cases, those of other pipelines, could have a material adverse effect on our business. Any reduction in our credit ratings could affect materially and adversely our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. Our long-term debt and our commercial paper program have been assigned an investment-grade credit rating of “Baa3” and Prime-3, respectively, by Moody’s and “BBB” and A-2, respectively, by S&P. We cannot provide assurance that any of our current ratings will remain in effect for any given period of time or that a rating will not be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency if, in its judgment, circumstances in the future so warrant. Specifically, if Moody’s or S&P were to downgrade our long-term debt or our commercial paper rating, particularly below investment grade, our borrowing costs would increase, which would affect adversely our financial results, and our potential pool of investors and funding sources could decrease. Ratings from credit agencies are not recommendations to buy, sell or hold our securities. Each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. Holders of our common stock may not receive dividends in the amount identified in guidance, or any dividends at all. We may not have sufficient cash each quarter to pay dividends or maintain current or expected levels of dividends. The actual amount of cash we pay in the form of dividends may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and will depend on various factors, some of which are beyond our control, including our working capital needs, our ability to borrow, the restrictions contained in our indentures and credit facility, our debt service requirements and the cost of acquisitions, if any. A failure either to pay dividends or to pay dividends at expected levels could result in a loss of investor confidence, reputational damage and a decrease in the value of our stock price. Our operating cash flows are derived partially from cash distributions we receive from our unconsolidated affiliates. Our operating cash flows are derived partially from cash distributions we receive from our unconsolidated affiliates, as discussed in Note M of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. The amount of cash that our unconsolidated affiliates can distribute principally depends upon the amount of cash flows these affiliates generate from their respective operations, which may fluctuate from quarter to quarter. We do not have any direct control over the cash distribution policies of our unconsolidated affiliates. This lack of control may contribute to us not having sufficient available cash each quarter to continue paying dividends at the current levels. Additionally, the amount of cash that we have available for cash dividends depends primarily upon our cash flows, including working capital borrowings, and is not solely a function of profitability, which will be affected by noncash items such as depreciation, amortization and provisions for asset impairments. As a result, we may be able to pay cash dividends during periods when we record losses and may not be able to pay cash dividends during periods when we record net income. We are exposed to the credit risk of our customers or counterparties, and our credit risk management may not be adequate to protect against such risk. We are subject to the risk of loss resulting from nonpayment and/or nonperformance by our customers and counterparties. Our customers or counterparties may experience rapid deterioration of their financial condition as a result of changing market conditions, commodity prices or financial difficulties that could impact their creditworthiness or ability to pay us for our services. We assess the creditworthiness of our customers and counterparties and obtain collateral or contractual terms as we deem appropriate. We cannot, however, predict to what extent our business may be impacted by deteriorating market or financial conditions, including possible declines in our customers’ and counterparties’ creditworthiness. Our customers and counterparties may not perform or adhere to our existing or future contractual arrangements. To the extent our customers and counterparties are in financial distress or commence bankruptcy proceedings, contracts with them may be subject to renegotiation or rejection under applicable provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code. If we fail to assess adequately the creditworthiness of existing or future customers and counterparties any material nonpayment or nonperformance by our customers and counterparties due to inability or unwillingness to perform or adhere to contractual arrangements could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and ability to pay cash dividends to our shareholders. Our primary market areas are located in the Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountain, Permian Basin and Gulf Coast regions of the U.S. Our counterparties are primarily major integrated and independent exploration and production, pipeline, marketing and petrochemical companies. Therefore our counterparties may be similarly affected by changes in economic, regulatory or other factors that may affect our overall credit risk. Our established risk-management policies and procedures may not be effective, and employees may violate our risk-management policies. We have developed and implemented a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that involve both our senior management and our Audit Committee to assist us in managing risks associated with, among other things, the marketing, trading and risk-management activities associated with our business segments. Our risk-management policies and procedures are intended to align strategies, processes, people, information technology and business knowledge so that risk is managed throughout the organization. As conditions change and become more complex, current risk measures may fail to assess adequately the relevant risk due to changes in the market and the presence of risks previously unknown to us. Additionally, if employees fail to adhere to our policies and procedures or if our policies and procedures are not effective, potentially because of future conditions or risks outside of our control, we may be exposed to greater risk than we had intended. Ineffective risk-management policies and procedures or violation of risk-management policies and procedures could have an adverse effect on our earnings, financial position or cash flows. Our businesses are subject to market and credit risks. We are exposed to market and credit risks in all of our operations. To reduce the impact of commodity price fluctuations, we may use derivative instruments, such as swaps, puts, futures and forwards, to hedge anticipated purchases and sales of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil and firm transportation commitments. Interest-rate swaps are also used to manage interest-rate risk. However, derivative instruments do not eliminate the risks. Specifically, such risks include commodity price changes, market supply shortages, interest-rate changes and counterparty default. The impact of these variables could result in our inability to fulfill contractual obligations, significantly higher energy or fuel costs relative to corresponding sales contracts, or increased interest expense. We do not hedge fully against commodity price changes, seasonal price differentials, product price differentials or location price differentials. This could result in decreased revenues, increased costs and lower margins, affecting adversely our results of operations. Certain of our businesses are exposed to market risk and the impact of market fluctuations in natural gas, NGLs and crude oil prices. Market risk refers to the risk of loss of cash flows and future earnings arising from adverse changes in commodity prices. Our primary commodity price exposures arise from: • the value of the commodities sold under POP with fee contracts of which we retain a portion of the sales proceeds; • the price differentials between the individual NGL products with respect to our NGL transportation and fractionation agreements; • the location price differentials in the price of natural gas and NGLs with respect to our natural gas and NGL transportation businesses; • the seasonal price differentials in natural gas and NGLs related to our storage operations; and • the fuel costs and the value of the retained fuel in-kind in our natural gas pipelines and storage operations. To manage the risk from market price fluctuations in natural gas, NGLs and crude oil prices, we may use derivative instruments such as swaps, puts, futures, forwards and options. However, we do not hedge fully against commodity price changes, and we therefore retain some exposure to market risk. Accordingly, any adverse changes to commodity prices could result in decreased revenue and increased costs. Our use of financial instruments and physical-forward transactions to hedge market-risk exposure to commodity price and interest-rate fluctuations may result in reduced income. We utilize financial instruments and physical-forward transactions to mitigate our exposure to interest rate and commodity price fluctuations. Hedging instruments that are used to reduce our exposure to interest-rate fluctuations could expose us to risk of financial loss where we may contract for fixed-rate swap instruments to hedge variable-rate instruments and the fixed rate exceeds the variable rate. Hedging arrangements for forecasted sales are used to reduce our exposure to commodity price fluctuations and limit the benefit we would otherwise receive if market prices for natural gas, crude oil and NGLs exceed the stated price in the hedge instrument for these commodities. Changes in interest rates could affect adversely our business. We use both fixed and variable rate debt, and we are exposed to market risk due to the floating interest rates on our short-term borrowings. Our results of operations, cash flows and financial position could be affected adversely by significant fluctuations in interest rates from current levels. From time to time we use interest-rate derivatives to hedge interest obligations on specific debt issuances, including anticipated debt issuances. In July 2017, the head of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority announced the desire to phase out the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large US financial institutions, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), a new index supported by short-term Treasury repurchase agreements. Although there have been some issuances utilizing SOFR, it is unknown whether this alternative reference rate will attain market acceptance as a replacement for LIBOR. Our $2.5 Billion Credit Agreement and our $1.5 Billion Term Loan Agreement include language to determine a replacement rate for LIBOR, if necessary. However, if LIBOR ceases to exist, we may need to renegotiate future agreements, if any, extending beyond 2021 that utilize LIBOR as a factor in determining the interest rate to replace LIBOR with the new standard that is established. There is currently no definitive information regarding the future utilization of LIBOR or of any particular replacement rate. As such, the potential effect on us cannot yet be determined. Demand for natural gas and for certain of our NGL products and services is highly weather sensitive and seasonal. The demand for natural gas and for certain of our NGL products, such as propane, is weather sensitive and seasonal, with a portion of revenues derived from sales for heating during the winter months. Weather conditions influence directly the volume of, among other things, natural gas and propane delivered to customers. Deviations in weather from normal levels and the seasonal nature of certain of our segments can create variations in earnings and short-term cash requirements. Energy efficiency and technological advances may affect the demand for natural gas and NGLs and affect adversely our operating results. More strict local, state and federal energy-conservation measures in the future or technological advances in heating, including installation of improved insulation and the development of more efficient furnaces, energy generation or other devices could affect the demand for natural gas and NGLs and affect adversely our results of operations and cash flows. A breach of information security, including a cybersecurity attack, or failure of one or more key information technology or operational systems, or those of third parties, may affect adversely our operations, financial results or reputation. Our businesses are dependent upon our operational systems to process a large amount of data and complex transactions. The various uses of these information technology systems, networks and services include, but are not limited to: • controlling our plants and pipelines with industrial control systems including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA); • collecting and storing customer, employee, investor and other stakeholder information and data; • processing transactions; • summarizing and reporting results of operations; • hosting, processing and sharing confidential and proprietary research, business plans and financial information; • complying with regulatory, legal or tax requirements; • providing data security; and • handling other processing necessary to manage our business. If any of our systems are damaged, fail to function properly or otherwise become unavailable, we may incur substantial costs to repair or replace them and may experience loss or corruption of critical data and interruptions or delays in our ability to perform critical functions, which could affect adversely our business and results of operations. Our financial results could also be affected adversely if an employee causes our operational systems to fail, either as a result of inadvertent error or by deliberately tampering with or manipulating our operational systems. In addition, dependence upon automated systems may further increase the risk that operational system flaws, employee tampering or manipulation of those systems will result in losses that are difficult to detect. Due to increased technology advances, we have become more reliant on technology to help increase efficiency in our businesses. We use software to help manage and operate our businesses, and this may subject us to increased risks. In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of cyberattacks on companies’ network and information systems by both state-sponsored and criminal organizations, and as a result, the risks associated with such an event continue to increase. A significant failure, compromise, breach or interruption in our systems could result in a disruption of our operations, physical damages, customer dissatisfaction, damage to our reputation and a loss of customers or revenues. If any such failure, interruption or similar event results in the improper disclosure of information maintained in our information systems and networks or those of our vendors, including personnel, customer and vendor information, we could also be subject to liability under relevant contractual obligations and laws and regulations protecting personal data and privacy. Efforts by us and our vendors to develop, implement and maintain security measures may not be successful in preventing these events from occurring, and any network and information systems-related events could require us to expend significant resources to remedy such event. Cybersecurity, physical security and the continued development and enhancement of our controls, processes and practices designed to protect our enterprise, information systems and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access and to identify and appropriately report cyberattacks, remain a priority for us. Although we believe that we have robust information security procedures and other safeguards in place, as cyberthreats continue to evolve, we may be required to expend additional resources to continue to enhance our information security measures and/or to investigate and remediate information security vulnerabilities. Cyberattacks against us or others in our industry could result in additional regulations. Current efforts by the federal government, such as the Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity executive order, and any potential future regulations could lead to increased regulatory compliance costs, insurance coverage cost or capital expenditures. We cannot predict the potential impact to our business or the energy industry resulting from additional regulations. If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to report accurately our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential holders of our equity and debt securities could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm our business and cost of capital. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports, prevent fraud and operate successfully as a public company. We cannot be certain that our efforts to maintain our internal controls will be successful, that we will be able to maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future or that we will be able to continue to comply with our obligations under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Any failure to maintain effective internal controls, or difficulties encountered in implementing or improving our internal controls, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our equity interests. Our employees or directors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, including noncompliance with regulatory standards and requirements. As with all companies, we are exposed to the risk of employee fraud or other misconduct. Our Board of Directors has adopted a code of business conduct and ethics that applies to our directors, officers (including our principal executive and financial officers, principal accounting officer, controllers and other persons performing similar functions) and all other employees. We require all directors, officers and employees to adhere to our code of business conduct and ethics in addressing the legal and ethical issues encountered in conducting their work for our company. Our code of business conduct and ethics requires, among other things, that our directors, officers and employees avoid conflicts of interest, comply with all applicable laws and other legal requirements, conduct business in an honest and ethical manner and otherwise act with integrity and in our company’s best interest. All directors, officers and employees are required to report any conduct that they believe to be an actual or apparent violation of our code of business conduct and ethics. However, it is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. Pipeline safety laws and regulations may impose significant costs and liabilities. Pipeline safety legislation that was signed into law in 2012, the 2011 Pipeline Safety Act, directed the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate new safety regulations for natural gas and hazardous liquids pipelines, including expanded integrity management requirements, automatic or remote-controlled valve use, excess flow valve use, leak detection system installation, testing to confirm the material strength of certain pipelines and operator verification of records confirming the maximum allowable pressure of certain gas transmission pipelines. The 2011 Pipeline Safety Act also increased the maximum penalty for violation of pipeline safety regulations from $0.1 million to $0.2 million per violation per day and also from $1 million to $2 million for a related series of violations. The 2011 Pipeline Safety Act, the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act or rules implementing such acts could cause us to incur capital and operating expenditures for pipeline replacements or repairs, additional monitoring equipment or more frequent inspections or testing of our pipeline facilities, preventive or mitigating measures and other tasks that could result in higher operating costs or capital expenditures as necessary to comply with such standards, which costs could be significant. See further discussion in the “Regulatory, Environmental and Safety Matters” section. Compliance with environmental regulations that we are subject to may be difficult and costly. We are subject to a variety of historical preservation and environmental laws and/or regulations that affect many aspects of our present and future operations. Regulated activities include, but are not limited to, those involving air emissions, storm water and wastewater discharges, handling and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, wetlands and waterways preservation, cultural resources protection, hazardous materials transportation, and pipeline and facility construction. These laws and regulations require us to obtain and/or comply with a wide variety of environmental clearances, registrations, licenses, permits and other approvals. Failure to comply with these laws, regulations, licenses and permits may expose us to fines, penalties and/or interruptions in our operations that could be material to our results of operations. For example, if a leak or spill of hazardous substances or petroleum products occurs from our pipelines or facilities that we own, operate or otherwise use, we could be held jointly and severally liable for all resulting liabilities, including response, investigation and clean-up costs, which could affect materially our results of operations and cash flows. In addition, emissions controls and/or other regulatory or permitting mandates under the federal Clean Air Act and other similar federal and state laws could require unexpected capital expenditures at our facilities. We cannot assure that existing environmental statutes and regulations will not be revised or that new regulations will not be adopted or become applicable to us. Revised or additional regulations that result in increased compliance costs or additional operating restrictions, particularly if those costs are not fully recoverable from customers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. Our operations are subject to federal and state laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, which may expose us to significant costs and liabilities. The risk of incurring substantial environmental costs and liabilities is inherent in our business. Our operations are subject to extensive federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the discharge of materials into, or otherwise relating to the protection of, the environment. Examples of these laws include: • the Clean Air Act and analogous state laws that impose obligations related to air emissions; • the Clean Water Act and analogous state laws that regulate discharge of wastewater from our facilities to state and federal waters; • the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and analogous state laws that regulate the cleanup of hazardous substances that may have been released at properties currently or previously owned or operated by us or locations to which we have sent waste for disposal; and • the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and analogous state laws that impose requirements for the handling and discharge of solid and hazardous waste from our facilities. Various federal and state governmental authorities, including the EPA, have the power to enforce compliance with these laws and regulations and the permits issued under them. Violators are subject to administrative, civil and criminal penalties, including civil fines, injunctions or both. Joint and several, strict liability may be incurred without regard to fault under the CERCLA, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and analogous state laws for the remediation of contaminated areas. There is an inherent risk of incurring environmental costs and liabilities in our business due to our handling of the products we gather, transport, process and store, air emissions related to our operations, past industry operations and waste disposal practices, some of which may be material. Private parties, including the owners of properties through which our pipeline systems pass, may have the right to pursue legal actions to enforce compliance as well as to seek damages for noncompliance with environmental laws and regulations or for personal injury or property damage arising from our operations. Some sites we operate are located near current or former third-party hydrocarbon storage and processing operations, and there is a risk that contamination has migrated from those sites to ours. In addition, increasingly strict laws, regulations and enforcement policies could increase significantly our compliance costs and the cost of any remediation that may become necessary, some of which may be material. Additional information is included under Item 1, Business, under “Regulatory, Environmental and Safety Matters” and in Note N of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report. Our insurance may not cover all environmental risks and costs or may not provide sufficient coverage in the event an environmental claim is made against us. Our business may be affected materially and adversely by increased costs due to stricter pollution-control requirements or liabilities resulting from noncompliance with required operating or other regulatory permits. New or revised environmental regulations might also affect materially and adversely our products and activities, and federal and state agencies could impose additional safety requirements, all of which could affect materially our profitability. We may face significant costs to comply with the regulation of GHG emissions. GHG emissions originate primarily from combustion engine exhaust, heater exhaust and fugitive methane gas emissions. International, federal, regional and/or state legislative and/or regulatory initiatives may attempt to control or limit GHG emissions, including initiatives directed at issues associated with climate change. Various federal and state legislative proposals have been introduced to regulate the emission of GHGs, particularly carbon dioxide and methane, and the United States Supreme Court has ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to regulation by the EPA. In addition, there have been international efforts seeking legally binding reductions in emissions of GHGs. We believe it is likely that future governmental legislation and/or regulation may require us either to limit GHG emissions associated with our operations or to purchase allowances for such emissions. However, we cannot predict precisely what form these future regulations will take, the stringency of the regulations or when they will become effective. Several legislative bills have been introduced in the United States Congress that would require carbon dioxide emission reductions. Previously considered proposals have included, among other things, limitations on the amount of GHGs that can be emitted (so called “caps”) together with systems of permitted emissions allowances. These proposals could require us to reduce emissions, even though the technology is not currently available for efficient reduction, or to purchase allowances for such emissions. Emissions also could be taxed independently of limits. In addition to activities on the federal level, state and regional initiatives could also lead to the regulation of GHG emissions sooner than and/or independent of federal regulation. These regulations could be more stringent than any federal legislation that may be adopted. Future legislation and/or regulation designed to reduce GHG emissions could make some of our activities uneconomic to maintain or operate. Further, we may not be able to pass on the higher costs to our customers or recover all costs related to complying with GHG regulatory requirements. Our future results of operations, cash flows or financial condition could be affected adversely if such costs are not recovered through regulated rates or otherwise passed on to our customers. We continue to monitor legislative and regulatory developments in this area and otherwise take efforts to limit GHG emissions from our facilities, including methane. Although the regulation of GHG emissions may have a material impact on our operations and rates, we believe it is premature to attempt to quantify the potential costs of the impacts. We may be subject to physical and financial risks associated with climate change. The threat of global climate change may create physical and financial risks to our business. Our customers’ energy needs vary with weather conditions, primarily temperature and humidity. For residential customers, heating and cooling represent their largest energy use. To the extent weather conditions may be affected by climate change, customers’ energy use could increase or decrease depending on the duration and magnitude of any changes. Increased energy use due to weather changes may require us to invest in more pipelines and other infrastructure to serve increased demand. A decrease in energy use due to weather changes may affect our financial condition, through decreased revenues. Extreme weather conditions in general require more system backup, adding to costs, and can contribute to increased system stresses, including service interruptions. Weather conditions outside of our operating territory could also have an impact on our revenues. Severe weather impacts our operating territories primarily through hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornados and snow or ice storms. To the extent the frequency of extreme weather events increases, this could increase our cost of providing service. We may not be able to pass on the higher costs to our customers or recover all costs related to mitigating these physical risks. To the extent financial markets view climate change and emissions of GHGs as a financial risk, this could affect negatively our ability to access capital markets or cause us to receive less favorable terms and conditions in future financings. Our business could be affected by the potential for lawsuits against GHG emitters, based on links drawn between GHG emissions and climate change. Our business is subject to regulatory oversight and potential penalties. The energy industry historically has been subject to heavy state and federal regulation that extends to many aspects of our businesses and operations, including: • rates, operating terms and conditions of service; • the types of services we may offer our counterparties; • construction of new facilities; • the integrity, safety and security of facilities and operations; • acquisition, extension or abandonment of services or facilities; • reporting and information posting requirements; • maintenance of accounts and records; and • relationships with affiliate companies involved in all aspects of the natural gas and energy businesses. Compliance with these requirements can be costly and burdensome. Future changes to laws, regulations and policies in these areas may impair our ability to compete for business or to recover costs and may increase the cost and burden of operations. We cannot guarantee that state or federal regulators will authorize any projects or acquisitions that we may propose in the future. Moreover, there can be no guarantee that, if granted, any such authorizations will be made in a timely manner or will be free from potentially burdensome conditions. Failure to comply with all applicable state or federal statutes, rules and regulations and orders could bring substantial penalties and fines. For example, under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the FERC has civil penalty authority under the Natural Gas Act to impose penalties for current violations of up to $1 million per day for each violation. Finally, we cannot give any assurance regarding future state or federal regulations under which we will operate or the effect such regulations could have on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Our regulated pipelines’ transportation rates are subject to review and possible adjustment by federal and state regulators. Under the Natural Gas Act, which is applicable to interstate natural gas pipelines, and the Interstate Commerce Act, which is applicable to crude oil and natural gas liquids pipelines, our interstate transportation rates, which are regulated by the FERC, must be just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory. If we were permitted to raise our tariff rates for a particular pipeline, there might be significant delay between the time the tariff rate increase is approved and the time that the rate increase actually goes into effect. Furthermore, competition from other pipeline systems may prevent us from raising our tariff rates even if regulatory agencies permit us to do so. The regulatory agencies that regulate our systems periodically implement new rules, regulations and terms and conditions of services subject to their jurisdiction. New initiatives or orders may affect adversely the rates charged for our services. Finally, shippers may protest our pipeline tariff filings, and the FERC and or state regulatory agency may investigate tariff rates. Further, the FERC may order refunds of amounts collected under newly filed rates that are determined by the FERC to be in excess of a just and reasonable level. In addition, shippers may challenge by complaint the lawfulness of tariff rates that have become final and effective. The FERC and/or state regulatory agencies also may investigate tariff rates absent shipper complaint. Any finding that approved rates exceed a just and reasonable level on the natural gas pipelines would take effect prospectively. In a complaint proceeding challenging natural gas liquids pipeline rates, if the FERC determines existing rates exceed a just and reasonable level, it could require the payment of reparations to complaining shippers for up to two years prior to the complaint. Any such action by the FERC or a comparable action by a state regulatory agency could affect adversely our pipeline businesses’ ability to charge rates that would cover future increases in costs, or even to continue to collect rates that cover current costs, and provide for a reasonable return. We can provide no assurance that our pipeline systems will be able to recover all of their costs through existing or future rates. We are subject to comprehensive energy regulation by governmental agencies, and the recovery of our costs are dependent on regulatory action. Federal, state and local agencies have jurisdiction over many of our activities, including regulation by the FERC of our interstate pipeline assets. The profitability of our regulated operations is dependent on our ability to pass through costs related to providing energy and other commodities to our customers by filing periodic rate cases. The regulatory environment applicable to our regulated businesses could impair our ability to recover costs historically absorbed by our customers. We are unable to predict the impact that the future regulatory activities of these agencies will have on our operating results. Changes in regulations or the imposition of additional regulations could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. Our regulated pipeline companies have recorded certain assets that may not be recoverable from our customers. Accounting policies for FERC-regulated companies permit certain assets that result from the regulated rate-making process to be recorded on our balance sheet that could not be recorded under GAAP for nonregulated entities. We consider factors such as regulatory changes and the impact of competition to determine the probability of future recovery of these assets. If we determine future recovery is no longer probable, we would be required to write off the regulatory assets at that time. A shortage of skilled labor may make it difficult for us to maintain labor productivity and competitive costs, which could affect operations and cash flows available for dividends to our shareholders. Our operations require skilled and experienced workers with proficiency in multiple tasks. In recent years, a shortage of workers trained in various skills associated with the midstream energy business has caused us to conduct certain operations without full staff, thus hiring outside resources, which may decrease productivity and increase costs. This shortage of trained workers is the result of experienced workers reaching retirement age and increased competition for workers in certain areas, combined with the challenges of attracting new, qualified workers to the midstream energy industry. This shortage of skilled labor could continue over an extended period. If the shortage of experienced labor continues or worsens, it could have an adverse impact on our labor productivity and costs and our ability to expand production in the event there is an increase in the demand for our products and services, which could affect adversely our operations and cash flows available for dividends to our shareholders. We are subject to strict regulations at many of our facilities regarding employee safety, and failure to comply with these regulations could affect adversely our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. The workplaces associated with our facilities are subject to the requirements of OSHA and comparable state statutes that regulate the protection of the health and safety of workers. The failure to comply with OSHA requirements or general industry standards, including keeping adequate records or monitoring occupational exposure to regulated substances, could expose us to civil or criminal liability, enforcement actions, and regulatory fines and penalties and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Measurement adjustments on our pipeline system may be impacted materially by changes in estimation, type of commodity and other factors. Natural gas and natural gas liquids measurement adjustments occur as part of the normal operating conditions associated with our assets. The quantification and resolution of measurement adjustments are complicated by several factors including: (i) the significant quantities (i.e., thousands) of measurement equipment that we use throughout our natural gas and natural gas liquids systems, primarily around our gathering and processing assets; (ii) varying qualities of natural gas in the streams gathered and processed through our systems and the mixed nature of NGLs gathered and fractionated; and (iii) variances in measurement that are inherent in metering technologies. Each of these factors may contribute to measurement adjustments that can occur on our systems, which could negatively affect our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Many of our pipeline and storage assets have been in service for several decades. Many of our pipeline and storage assets are designed as long-lived assets. Over time the age of these assets could result in increased maintenance or remediation expenditures and an increased risk of product releases and associated costs and liabilities. Any significant increase in these expenditures, costs or liabilities could affect materially and adversely our results of operations, financial position or cash flows, as well as our ability to pay cash dividends. We may be unable to cause our joint ventures to take or not to take certain actions unless some or all of our joint-venture participants agree. We participate in several joint ventures. Due to the nature of some of these arrangements, each participant in these joint ventures has made substantial investments in the joint venture and, accordingly, has required that the relevant charter documents contain certain features designed to provide each participant with the opportunity to participate in the management of the joint venture and to protect its investment, as well as any other assets that may be substantially dependent on or otherwise affected by the activities of that joint venture. These participation and protective features customarily include a corporate governance structure that requires at least a majority-in-interest vote to authorize many basic activities and requires a greater voting interest (sometimes up to 100 percent) to authorize more significant activities. Examples of these more significant activities are large expenditures or contractual commitments, the construction or acquisition of assets, borrowing money or otherwise raising capital, transactions with affiliates of a joint-venture participant, litigation and transactions not in the ordinary course of business, among others. Thus, without the concurrence of joint-venture participants with enough voting interests, we may be unable to cause any of our joint ventures to take or not to take certain actions, even though those actions may be in the best interest of us or the particular joint venture. Moreover, any joint-venture owner generally may sell, transfer or otherwise modify its ownership interest in a joint venture, whether in a transaction involving third parties or the other joint-venture owners. Any such transaction could result in us being required to partner with different or additional parties. We do not operate all of our joint-venture assets nor do we employ directly all of the persons responsible for providing us with administrative, operating and management services. This reliance on others to operate joint-venture assets and to provide other services could affect adversely our business and operating results. We rely on others to provide administrative, operating and management services for certain of our joint-venture assets. We have a limited ability to control the operations and the associated costs of such operations. The success of these operations depends on a number of factors that are outside our control, including the competence and financial resources of the provider. Some or all of these services may be outsourced to third parties, and a failure to perform by these third-party providers could lead to delays in or interruptions of these services. We may have to contract elsewhere for these services, which may cost more than we are currently paying. In addition, we may not be able to obtain the same level or kind of service or retain or receive the services in a timely manner, which may impact our ability to perform under our contracts and negatively affect our business and operating results. Our reliance on others to operate joint-venture assets, together with our limited ability to control certain costs, could harm our business and results of operations. An impairment of goodwill, long-lived assets, including intangible assets, and equity-method investments could reduce our earnings. Goodwill is recorded when the purchase price of a business exceeds the fair market value of the tangible and separately measurable intangible net assets. GAAP requires us to test goodwill for impairment on an annual basis or when events or circumstances occur indicating that goodwill might be impaired. Long-lived assets, including intangible assets with finite useful lives, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. For the investments we account for under the equity method, the impairment test considers whether the fair value of the equity investment as a whole, not the underlying net assets, has declined and whether that decline is other than temporary. For example, if a low commodity price environment persisted for a prolonged period, it could result in lower volumes delivered to our systems and impairments of our assets or equity-method investments. If we determine that an impairment is indicated, we would be required to take an immediate noncash charge to earnings with a correlative effect on equity and balance sheet leverage as measured by consolidated debt to total capitalization. Our indebtedness and guarantee obligations could impair our financial condition and our ability to fulfill our obligations. As of December 31, 2018, we had total indebtedness of $9.4 billion. Our indebtedness and guarantee obligations could have significant consequences. For example, they could: • make it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to senior notes and other indebtedness due to the increased debt-service obligations, which could, in turn, result in an event of default on such other indebtedness or the senior notes; • impair our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or general business purposes; • diminish our ability to withstand a downturn in our business or the economy; • require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows from operations to debt-service payments, reducing the availability of cash for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, dividends or general corporate purposes; • limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate; and • place us at a competitive disadvantage compared with our competitors that have proportionately less debt and fewer guarantee obligations. We are not prohibited under the indentures governing the senior notes from incurring additional indebtedness, but our debt agreements do subject us to certain operational limitations summarized in the next paragraph. If we incur significant additional indebtedness, it could worsen the negative consequences mentioned above and could affect adversely our ability to repay our other indebtedness. Our $2.5 Billion Credit Agreement and $1.5 Billion Term Loan Agreement contain provisions that restrict our ability to finance future operations or capital needs or to expand or pursue our business activities. For example, certain of these agreements contain provisions that, among other things, limit our ability to make loans or investments, make material changes to the nature of our business, merge, consolidate or engage in asset sales, grant liens or make negative pledges. Certain agreements also require us to maintain certain financial ratios, which limit the amount of additional indebtedness we can incur, as described in the “Liquidity and Capital Resources” section of Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation. These restrictions could result in higher costs of borrowing and impair our ability to generate additional cash. Future financing agreements we may enter into may contain similar or more restrictive covenants. If we are unable to meet our debt-service obligations, we could be forced to restructure or refinance our indebtedness, seek additional equity capital or sell assets. We may be unable to obtain financing or sell assets on satisfactory terms, or at all. The right to receive payments on our outstanding debt securities and subsidiary guarantees is unsecured and will be effectively subordinated to our existing and future secured indebtedness as well as to any existing and future indebtedness of our subsidiaries that do not guarantee the senior notes. Our debt securities are effectively subordinated to claims of our secured creditors, and the guarantees are effectively subordinated to the claims of our secured creditors as well as the secured creditors of our subsidiary guarantors. Although many of our operating subsidiaries have guaranteed such debt securities, the guarantees are subject to release under certain circumstances, and we may have subsidiaries that are not guarantors. In that case, the debt securities effectively would be subordinated to the claims of all creditors, including trade creditors and tort claimants, of our subsidiaries that are not guarantors. In the event of the insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or winding up of the business of a subsidiary that is not a guarantor, creditors of that subsidiary would generally have the right to be paid in full before any distribution is made to us or the holders of the debt securities. An event of default may require us to offer to repurchase certain of our and ONEOK Partners’ senior notes or may impair our ability to access capital. The indentures governing certain of our and ONEOK Partners’ senior notes include an event of default upon the acceleration of other indebtedness of $15 million or more for certain of our senior notes or $100 million or more for certain of our senior notes and ONEOK Partners’ senior notes. Such events of default would entitle the trustee or the holders of 25 percent in aggregate principal amount of our and ONEOK Partners’ outstanding senior notes to declare those senior notes immediately due and payable in full. We may not have sufficient cash on hand to repurchase and repay any accelerated senior notes, which may cause us to borrow money under our credit facility or seek alternative financing sources to finance the repurchases and repayment. We could also face difficulties accessing capital or our borrowing costs could increase, impacting our ability to obtain financing for acquisitions or capital expenditures, to refinance indebtedness and to fulfill our debt obligations. A court may use fraudulent conveyance considerations to avoid or subordinate the cross guarantees of our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness. Various applicable fraudulent conveyance laws have been enacted for the protection of creditors. ONEOK, ONEOK Partners and the Intermediate Partnership have cross guarantees in place for our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness. A court may use fraudulent conveyance laws to subordinate or avoid the cross guarantees of certain of our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness. It is also possible that under certain circumstances, a court could hold that the direct obligations of the guarantor could be superior to the obligations under that cross guarantee. A court could avoid or subordinate the guarantor’s guarantee of our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness in favor of the guarantor’s other debts or liabilities to the extent that the court determined either of the following were true at the time the guarantor issued the guarantee: • the guarantor incurred the guarantee with the intent to hinder, delay or defraud any of its present or future creditors or the guarantor contemplated insolvency with a design to favor one or more creditors to the total or partial exclusion of others; or • the guarantor did not receive fair consideration or reasonable equivalent value for issuing the guarantee and, at the time it issued the guarantee, the guarantor: - was insolvent or rendered insolvent by reason of the issuance of the guarantee; - was engaged or about to engage in a business or transaction for which its remaining assets constituted unreasonably small capital; or - intended to incur, or believed that it would incur, debts beyond its ability to pay such debts as they matured. The measure of insolvency for purposes of the foregoing will vary depending upon the law of the relevant jurisdiction. Generally, however, an entity would be considered insolvent for purposes of the foregoing if: • the sum of its debts, including contingent liabilities, were greater than the fair saleable value of all of its assets at a fair valuation; • the present fair saleable value of its assets was less than the amount that would be required to pay its probable liability on its existing debts, including contingent liabilities, as they become absolute and mature; or • it could not pay its debts as they become due. Among other things, a legal challenge of the cross guarantees of our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness on fraudulent conveyance grounds may focus on the benefits, if any, realized by the guarantor as a result of our and ONEOK Partners’ issuance of such debt. To the extent the guarantor’s guarantee of our and ONEOK Partners’ indebtedness is avoided as a result of fraudulent conveyance or held unenforceable for any other reason, the holders of such debt would cease to have any claim in respect of the guarantee. The cost of providing pension and postretirement health care benefits to eligible employees and qualified retirees is subject to changes in pension fund values and changing demographics and may increase. We have a defined benefit pension plan for certain employees and former employees hired before January 1, 2005, and postretirement welfare plans that provide postretirement medical and life insurance benefits to certain employees hired prior to 2017 who retire with at least five years of service. The cost of providing these benefits to eligible current and former employees is subject to changes in the market value of our pension and postretirement benefit plan assets, changing demographics, including longer life expectancy of plan participants and their beneficiaries and changes in health care costs. For further discussion of our defined benefit pension plan, see Note K of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report. Any sustained declines in equity markets and reductions in bond yields may have a material adverse effect on the value of our pension and postretirement benefit plan assets. In these circumstances, additional cash contributions to our pension plans may be required, which could impact adversely our business, financial condition and liquidity. TAX RISKS Federal, state and local jurisdictions may challenge our tax return positions. The positions taken in our federal and state tax return filings require significant judgments, use of estimates and the interpretation and application of complex tax laws. Significant judgment is also required in assessing the timing and amounts of deductible and taxable items. Despite management’s belief that our tax return positions are fully supportable, certain positions may be successfully challenged by federal, state and local jurisdictions. Changes in guidance and regulation related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation may impact us. Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted, additional guidance in the form of notices and proposed regulations which interpret various aspects of the legislation have been issued. Additionally, the legislation could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections. We continue to monitor proposed regulations and other guidance related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and will continue to apply applicable guidance and rule-making as it becomes available. Any future interpretations, regulations, amendments or corrections could have an adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. ITEM 1B.