b'\x7f weather conditions and natural or man-made disasters;\x7f technological advances affecting energy consumption;\x7f governmental regulations and taxation policies;\x7f proximity and capacity of transportation facilities;\x7f the development and exploitation of alternative fuels or energy sources;\x7f the price and availability of competitors supplies of oil and natural gas; and\x7f the price, availability or mandated use of alternative fuels or energy sources.Lower oil prices may not only reduce our revenues but also may limit the amount of oil that wecan produce economically. A substantial or extended decline in oil and natural gas prices maymaterially and adversely affect our future business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity orability to finance planned capital expenditures.Under the terms of our various petroleum contracts, we are contractually obligated to drill wells and declareany discoveries in order to retain exploration and production rights. In the competitive market for our licenseareas, failure to drill these wells or declare any discoveries may result in substantial license renewal costs orloss of our interests in the undeveloped parts of our license areas, which may include certain of our prospects.In order to protect our exploration and production rights in our license areas, we must meetvarious drilling and declaration requirements. In general, unless we make and declare discoveries withincertain time periods specified in our various petroleum agreements and licenses, our interests in theundeveloped parts of our license areas may lapse. Should the prospects yield discoveries, we cannotassure you that we will not face delays in the appraisal and development of these prospects orotherwise have to relinquish these prospects. The costs to maintain petroleum contracts over such areasmay fluctuate and may increase significantly since the original term, and we may not be able to renewor extend such petroleum contracts on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Our actual drillingactivities may therefore materially differ from our current expectations, which could adversely affect ourbusiness.Under these petroleum contracts, we have work commitments to perform exploration and otherrelated activities. Failure to do so may result in our loss of the licenses. As of December 31, 2018, wehave unfulfilled drilling obligations in one of our Mauritania petroleum contracts. In certain otherpetroleum contracts, we are in the initial exploration phase, some of which have certain obligations thathave yet to be fulfilled. Over the course of the next several years, we may choose to enter into the nextphase of those petroleum contracts which will likely include firm obligations to drill wells. Failure toexecute our obligations may result in our loss of the licenses.The Exploration Period of each of the WCTP and DT petroleum contracts has expired. Pursuantto the terms of such petroleum contracts, while we and our respective block partners have certain rightsto negotiate new petroleum contracts with respect to the WCTP Relinquishment Area and DTRelinquishment Area, we cannot assure you that we will determine to enter any such new petroleumcontracts. For each of our petroleum contracts, we cannot assure you that any renewals or extensionswill be granted or whether any new agreements will be available on commercially reasonable terms, or,in some cases, at all. For additional detail regarding the status of our operations with respect to ourvarious petroleum contracts, please see Item 1. BusinessOperations by Geographic Area.45'