7. REVENUE

Substantially all of our revenues are attributable to our Gabon operations.  Revenues from contracts with customers are generated from sales in Gabon pursuant to crude oil sales and purchase agreements (“COSPAs”). The COSPAs have been and will be renewed or replaced from time to time either with the current buyer or another buyer. Since August 2015, a COSPA has been in place with the same customer, initially for a one-year period, with amendments that extended the period through January 31, 2018.  On February 1, 2018, a new COSPA was entered into with this same customer, which terminated January 31, 2019.  A new COSPA with a different customer has been executed for the period from February 2019 through January 2020.

COSPAs with customers are renegotiated near the end of the contract term and may be entered into with a different customer or the same customer going forward.  Except for internal costs (which are expensed as incurred), there are no upfront costs associated with obtaining a new COSPA. 

Customer sales generally occur on a monthly basis when the customer’s tanker arrives at the FPSO and the crude oil is delivered to the tanker through a connection. There is a single performance obligation (delivering oil to the delivery point, i.e. the connection to the customer’s crude oil tanker) that gives rise to revenue recognition at the point in time when the performance obligation event takes place.  This is referred to as a “lifting”.  Liftings can take one to two days to complete.  The intervals between liftings are generally 30 days; however, changes in the timing of liftings will impact the number of liftings which occur during the period. Therefore, the performance obligation attributable to volumes to be sold in future liftings are wholly unsatisfied, and there is no transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations.  We have utilized the practical expedient in ASC Topic 606-10-50-14(a) which states that the Company is not required to disclose the transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations if the variable consideration is allocated entirely to a wholly unsatisfied performance obligation. 

Previously, we followed the sales method of accounting to account for crude oil production imbalances.  In conjunction with our adoption of ASC Topic 606 on January 1, 2018, we will continue to account for production imbalances as a reduction in reserves.  The volumes sold may be more or less than the volumes to which we are entitled based on our ownership interest in the property, and we would recognize a liability if our existing proved reserves were not adequate to cover an imbalance.

For each lifting completed under a COSPA, payment is made by the customer in U.S. Dollars by electronic transfer thirty days after the date of the bill of lading.  For each lifting of oil, the price is determined based on a formula using published Dated Brent prices as well as market differentials plus a fixed contract differential.

Generally, no significant judgments or estimates are required as of a given filing date with regard to applicable price or volumes sold because all of the parameters are known with certainty related to liftings that occurred in the recently completed calendar quarter. As such, we deem this situation to be characterized as a fixed price situation.  

In addition to revenues from customer contracts, the Company has other revenues related to contractual provisions under the Etame Marin block PSC.  The Etame PSC is not a customer contract, and therefore the associated revenues are not within the scope of ASC 606.  The terms of the Etame PSC includes provisions for payments to the government of Gabon for: royalties based on 13% of production at the published price and a shared portion of “Profit Oil” determined based on daily production rates, as well as a gross carried working interest of 7.5% (increasing to 10% beginning June 20, 2026) for all costs.  For both royalties and Profit Oil, the Etame PSC provides that the government of Gabon may settle these obligations in-kind, i.e. taking crude oil barrels, rather than with cash payments.

To date, the government of Gabon has not elected to take its royalties in-kind, and this obligation is settled through a monthly cash payment.  Payments for royalties are reflected as a reduction in revenues from customers.  Should the government elect to take the production attributable to its royalty in-kind, we would no longer have sales to customers associated with production assigned to royalties.

With respect to the government’s share of Profit Oil, the Etame PSC provides that corporate income tax is satisfied through the payment of Profit Oil.  In the consolidated statements of operations, the government’s share of revenues from Profit Oil is reported in revenues with a corresponding amount reflected in the current provision for income tax expense.  Prior to February 1, 2018, the government did not take any of its share of Profit Oil in-kind.  These revenues have been included in revenues to customers as the Company entered into the contract with the customer to sell the crude oil and was subject to the performance obligations associated with the contract.  For the in-kind sales by the government beginning February 1, 2018, these sales are not considered revenues under a customer contract as the Company is not a party to the contracts with the buyers of this crude oil.  However, consistent with the reporting of Profit Oil in prior periods, the amount associated with the Profit Oil under the terms of the Etame PSC is reflected as revenue with an offsetting amount reported in current income tax expense.  Payments of the income tax expense will be reported in the period in which the government takes its Profit Oil in-kind, i.e. the period in which it lifts the crude oil.  The in-kind payment related to the September lifting was $9.4 million.  As of December 31, 2018, the foreign taxes payable attributable to this obligation is $3.3 million.

Certain amounts associated with the carried interest in the Etame Marin block discussed above are reported as revenues.  In this carried interest arrangement, the carrying parties, which include the Company and other working interest owners, are obligated to fund all of the working interest costs which would otherwise be the obligation of the carried party.  The carrying parties recoup these funds from the carried interest party’s revenues.

The following table presents revenues from contracts with customers as well as revenues associated with the obligations under the
Etame PSC: