NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
PRINCIPLES OF CONSOLIDATION
Sempra Energy
Sempra Energy's Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of Sempra Energy, a California-based Fortune 500 holding company, and its consolidated subsidiaries and a variable interest entity (VIE). Sempra Energy’s principal subsidiaries are
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San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), which we collectively refer to as the Sempra Utilities; and
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Sempra Global, which is the holding company for Sempra Generation, Sempra Pipelines & Storage and Sempra LNG.
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Sempra Energy uses the equity method to account for investments in affiliated companies over which we have the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control. We discuss our investments in unconsolidated subsidiaries in Note 4 below and Note 4 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.
SDG&E
SDG&E's Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include its accounts and the accounts of a VIE of which SDG&E is the primary beneficiary, as we discuss in Note 5 under "Variable Interest Entities." SDG&E’s common stock is wholly owned by Enova Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sempra Energy.
Pacific Enterprises and SoCalGas
Pacific Enterprise’s Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of Pacific Enterprises (PE) and its subsidiary, SoCalGas. Sempra Energy owns all of PE’s common stock and PE owns all of SoCalGas’ common stock. SoCalGas’ Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include its subsidiaries, which comprise less than one percent of its consolidated financial position and results of operations.
PE's operations consist solely of those of SoCalGas and additional items (e.g., cash, intercompany accounts and equity) attributable to serving as a holding company for SoCalGas.
BASIS OF PRESENTATION
This is a combined report of Sempra Energy, SDG&E, PE and SoCalGas. We provide separate information for SDG&E, PE and SoCalGas as required. In the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (except in Note 11), when only information for SoCalGas is provided, it is the same for PE. References in this report to "we," "our" and "Sempra Energy Consolidated" are to Sempra Energy and its consolidated entities, unless otherwise indicated by the context. We have eliminated intercompany accounts and transactions within the consolidated financial statements of each reporting entity.
We have prepared the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) and in accordance with the interim-period-reporting requirements of Form 10-Q. Results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results for the entire year. We evaluated events and transactions that occurred after March 31, 2011 through the date the financial statements were issued, and in the opinion of management, the accompanying statements reflect all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation. These adjustments are only of a normal, recurring nature.
All December 31, 2010 balance sheet information in the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements has been derived from our audited 2010 consolidated financial statements. Certain information and note disclosures normally included in annual financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP have been condensed or omitted pursuant to the interim-period-reporting provisions of GAAP and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
You should read the information in this Quarterly Report in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 (the Annual Report), which is a combined report for Sempra Energy, SDG&E, PE and SoCalGas.
Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in the Annual Report. We follow the same accounting policies for interim reporting purposes.
The Sempra Utilities and Sempra Pipelines & Storage's Mobile Gas Service Corporation and Ecogas Mexico, S de RL de CV prepare their financial statements in accordance with GAAP provisions governing regulated operations, as we discuss in Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in the Annual Report.
NOTE 2. NEW ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
There are no recent accounting pronouncements that are anticipated to have an impact on or are related to our financial condition, results of operations, or disclosures.
NOTE 3. RECENT INVESTMENT ACTIVITY
SEMPRA PIPELINES & STORAGE
In the three months ended March 31, 2010, Sempra Pipelines & Storage contributed $65 million to Rockies Express, a joint venture to own and operate the Rockies Express Pipeline. The contribution was the last required for the construction phase of the project.
On April 30, 2010, Sempra Pipelines & Storage completed the acquisition of the Mexican pipeline and natural gas infrastructure assets of El Paso Corporation for $307 million ($292 million, net of cash acquired). Proforma impacts on revenues and earnings for Sempra Energy had the acquisition occurred on January 1, 2010 were additional revenues and earnings of $2 million and $6 million, respectively, for the three months ended March 31, 2010.
We provide information about Sempra Pipelines & Storage’s recent investment activity in Chile and Peru in Note 12.
NOTE 4. INVESTMENTS IN UNCONSOLIDATED ENTITIES
We provide additional information concerning all of our equity method investments in Note 4 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in the Annual Report.
RBS SEMPRA COMMODITIES
RBS Sempra Commodities LLP (RBS Sempra Commodities) is a United Kingdom limited liability partnership that owned and operated commodities-marketing businesses. We account for our investment in RBS Sempra Commodities under the equity method, and report our share of partnership earnings in Parent and Other.
We and our partner in the joint venture, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), sold substantially all of the partnership’s businesses and assets in four separate transactions completed in July, November and December of 2010 and February of 2011. We expect our share of remaining proceeds to approximate $779 million, the amount of our investment in RBS Sempra Commodities as of March 31, 2011.
On April 15, 2011, we and RBS entered into a letter agreement (Letter Agreement) which amended certain provisions of the agreements that formed RBS Sempra Commodities. The Letter Agreement addresses the wind-down of the partnership and the distribution of the partnership’s remaining assets. In accordance with the Letter Agreement, we received a $329 million distribution on April 15, 2011. This distribution included sales proceeds and our portion of 2010 distributable income totaling $357 million, less amounts to settle certain liabilities that we owed to RBS of $28 million. The Letter Agreement affirms that RBS Sempra Commodities will consider additional distributions of capital after taking into account various factors including available cash, the need for prudent reserves, potential payouts to the purchasers of the partnership’s businesses, and any accrued or projected future operating losses or other wind-down expenses of the partnership. The availability of cash is also impacted by the transfer of trading accounts to JP Morgan, one of the buyers in the sales transactions. These transfers and the related collection of accounts receivable and net margin continue as planned, and will be done as promptly as practicable during 2011. Future distributions will generally be made 51 percent to RBS, and 49 percent to us. The Letter Agreement also allows RBS Sempra Commodities to make capital calls to us, subject to certain limits, if necessary to support the remaining operations, for other liabilities or for other payments owed in connection with the sales transactions (subject to additional limitations). We do not anticipate any such capital calls.
In connection with the Letter Agreement described above, we also released RBS from its indemnification obligations with respect to the items for which JP Morgan has agreed to indemnify us.
For the three months ended March 31, 2011 and 2010, we recorded a pretax equity loss of $8 million and earnings of $7 million, respectively, from RBS Sempra Commodities.
We discuss the RBS Sempra Commodities sales transactions and other matters concerning the partnership in Note 4 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in the Annual Report.
NOTE 5. OTHER FINANCIAL DATA
TEMPORARY LIFO LIQUIDATION
SoCalGas values natural gas inventory by the last-in first-out (LIFO) method. As inventories are sold, differences between the LIFO valuation and the estimated replacement cost are reflected in customer rates. Temporary LIFO liquidation represents the difference between the carrying value of natural gas inventory withdrawn during the period for delivery to customers and the projected cost of the replacement of that inventory during summer months.
VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES (VIE)
We consolidate a VIE if we are the primary beneficiary of the VIE. Our determination of whether we are the primary beneficiary is based upon qualitative and quantitative analyses, which assess
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the purpose and design of the VIE;
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the nature of the VIE's risks and the risks we absorb;
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the power to direct activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the VIE; and
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the obligation to absorb losses or right to receive benefits that could be significant to the VIE.
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SDG&E has agreements under which it purchases power generated by facilities for which it supplies all of the natural gas to fuel the power plant (i.e., tolling agreements). SDG&E’s obligation to absorb natural gas costs may be a significant variable interest. In addition, SDG&E has the power to direct the dispatch of electricity generated by these facilities. Based upon our analysis, the ability to direct the dispatch of electricity may have the most significant impacts on the economic performance of the entity owning the generating facility because of the associated exposure to the cost of natural gas, which fuels the plants, and the value of electricity produced. To the extent that SDG&E (1) is obligated to purchase and provide fuel to operate the facility, (2) has the power to direct the dispatch, and (3) purchases all of the output from the facility for a substantial portion of the facility’s useful life, SDG&E may be the primary beneficiary of the entity owning the generating facility. SDG&E determines if it is the primary beneficiary in these cases based on the operational characteristics of the facility, including its expected power generation output relative to its capacity to generate and the financial structure of the entity, among other factors. If we determine that SDG&E is the primary beneficiary, Sempra Energy and SDG&E consolidate the entity that owns the facility as a VIE, as we discuss below.
Otay Mesa VIE
SDG&E has a 10-year agreement to purchase power generated at the Otay Mesa Energy Center (OMEC), a 605-MW generating facility that began commercial operations in October 2009. In addition to tolling, the agreement provides SDG&E with the option to purchase the power plant at the end of the contract term in 2019, or upon earlier termination of the purchased-power agreement, at a predetermined price subject to adjustments based on performance of the facility. If SDG&E does not exercise its option, under certain circumstances, it may be required to purchase the power plant at a predetermined price.
The facility owner, Otay Mesa Energy Center LLC (OMEC LLC), is a VIE (Otay Mesa VIE), of which SDG&E is the primary beneficiary. SDG&E has no OMEC LLC voting rights and does not operate OMEC. In addition to the risks absorbed under the tolling agreement, SDG&E absorbs separately through the put option a significant portion of the risk that the value of Otay Mesa VIE could decline. Sempra Energy and SDG&E have consolidated Otay Mesa VIE since the second quarter of 2007. Otay Mesa VIE's equity of $119 million at March 31, 2011 and $113 million at December 31, 2010 is included on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets in Other Noncontrolling Interests for Sempra Energy and in Noncontrolling Interest for SDG&E.
OMEC LLC has a loan outstanding of $362 million at March 31, 2011, the proceeds of which were used for the construction of OMEC. The loan is with third party lenders and is secured by OMEC's property, plant and equipment. SDG&E is not a party to the loan agreement and does not have any additional implicit or explicit financial responsibility to OMEC LLC. The loan fully matures in April 2019 and bears interest at rates varying with market rates. In addition, OMEC LLC has entered into interest rate swap agreements to moderate its exposure to interest rate changes. We provide additional information concerning the interest rate swaps in Note 7.
Other Variable Interest Entities
SDG&E's power procurement is subject to reliability requirements that may require SDG&E to enter into various power purchase arrangements which include variable interests. SDG&E evaluates these contracts to determine if variable interests exist and, based on the qualitative and quantitative analyses described above, if SDG&E, and thereby Sempra Energy, is the primary beneficiary. SDG&E has determined that no contracts, other than that relating to Otay Mesa VIE mentioned above, result in SDG&E being the primary beneficiary as of March 31, 2011. In addition to the tolling agreements described above, other variable interests involve various elements of fuel and power costs, including certain construction costs, tax credits, and other components of cash flow expected to be paid to or received by our counterparties. In most of these cases, the expectation of variability is not substantial, and SDG&E generally does not have the power to direct activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the other VIEs. If our ongoing evaluation of these VIEs were to conclude that SDG&E becomes the primary beneficiary and consolidation by SDG&E becomes necessary, the effects are not expected to significantly affect the financial position, results of operations, or liquidity of SDG&E. SDG&E is not exposed to losses or gains as a result of these other VIEs, because all such variability would be recovered in rates.
Sempra Energy’s other business units also enter into arrangements which could include variable interests. We evaluate these contracts based upon the qualitative and quantitative analyses described above. We have determined that these contracts are not variable interests in a VIE and therefore are not subject to the requirements of GAAP concerning the consolidation of VIEs.
PENSION AND OTHER POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS
Net Periodic Benefit Cost
The following three tables provide the components of net periodic benefit cost:
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NET PERIODIC BENEFIT COST -- SEMPRA ENERGY CONSOLIDATED
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(Dollars in millions)
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Pension Benefits
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Other Postretirement Benefits
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Three months ended March 31,
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Three months ended March 31,
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2011
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2010
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2011
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2010
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Service cost
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$
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22
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$
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22
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$
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7
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$
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7
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Interest cost
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