acquisition and drilling activities will result in significant additional reserves or that we will have continuing success drilling productive wells at low finding and development costs. Furthermore, while our revenues may increase if prevailing oil and natural gas prices increase significantly, our finding costs for additional reserves could also increase. A prospect is a property in which we own an interest or have operating rights and that has what our geoscientists believe, based on available seismic and geological information, to be an indication of potential oil or natural gas. Our prospects are in various stages of evaluation, ranging from a prospect that is ready to be drilled to a prospect that will require substantial additional evaluation and interpretation. There is no way to predict in advance of drilling and testing whether any particular prospect will yield oil or natural gas in sufficient quantities to recover drilling or completion costs or to be economically viable. The use of seismic data and other technologies and the study of producing fields in the same area will not enable us to know conclusively prior to drilling whether oil or natural gas will be present or, if present, whether oil or natural gas will be present in commercial quantities. The analysis that we perform using data from other wells, more fully explored prospects and/or producing fields may not be useful in predicting the characteristics and potential reserves associated with our drilling prospects. If we drill additional unsuccessful wells, our drilling success rate may decline and we may not achieve our targeted rate of return. Our future success will depend on the success of our exploration and development activities. Exploration activities involve numerous risks, including the risk that no commercially productive natural gas or oil reserves will be discovered. In addition, these activities may be unsuccessful for many reasons, including weather, cost overruns, equipment shortages and mechanical difficulties. Moreover, the successful drilling of a natural gas or oil well does not ensure we will realize a profit on our investment. A variety of factors, both geological and market-related, can cause a well to become uneconomical or only marginally economical. In addition to their costs, unsuccessful wells can hurt our efforts to replace production and reserves. Our business involves a variety of operating risks, including: 32 • environmental hazards, such as natural gas leaks, oil spills, pipeline ruptures and discharges of toxic gases. • abnormally pressured formations; and • mechanical difficulties, such as lost or stuck oil field drilling and service tools; • casing collapses; • pipe, cement, or pipeline failures; • natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tropical storms and other adverse weather conditions; • uncontrollable flows of natural gas, oil and formation water; • blow-outs and surface cratering; • explosions; • fires; • unusual or unexpected geological formations; Prospects that we decide to drill may not yield oil or natural gas in commercially viable quantities or quantities sufficient to meet our targeted rate of return. Our business involves many uncertainties and operating risks that can prevent us from realizing profits and can cause substantial losses.