Whiting’s directors or any other matter, or exercise any rights whatsoever as a stockholder of Whiting unless, until and only to the extent such holders become holders of record of shares of New Common Stock issued upon settlement of the Warrants.
The number of shares of New Common Stock for which a Warrant is exercisable and the Exercise Prices, are subject to adjustment from time to time upon the occurrence of certain events, including stock splits, reverse stock splits or stock dividends to holders of New Common Stock or a reclassification in respect of New Common Stock.
Settlement of Bankruptcy Claims—Prior to the Chapter 11 Cases, WOG was party to various executory contracts with BNN Western, LLC, subsequently renamed Tallgrass Water Western, LLC (“Tallgrass”), including a Produced Water Gathering and Disposal Agreement (the “PWA”). In January 2021, WOG and Tallgrass entered into a settlement agreement to resolve all of the related claims before the Bankruptcy Court relating to such executory contracts, terminated the PWA and entered into a new Water Transport, Gathering and Disposal Agreement. In accordance with the settlement agreement, Whiting made a $2 million cash payment and issued 948,897 shares of New Common Stock pursuant to the confirmed Plan to a Tallgrass entity in February 2021.
12. STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION
Equity Incentive Plan—As discussed in the “Chapter 11 Emergence” footnote, on the Emergence Date and pursuant to the terms of the Plan, all of the Predecessor’s common stock and any unvested awards based on such common stock were cancelled and holders were issued an aggregate of 1,233,495 shares of Successor common stock on a pro rata basis. On September 1, 2020, the Successor’s board of directors adopted the Whiting Petroleum Corporation 2020 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2020 Equity Plan”), which replaced the Predecessor’s equity plan (the “Predecessor Equity Plan”). The 2020 Equity Plan provides the authority to issue 4,035,885 shares of the Successor’s common stock. Any shares forfeited under the 2020 Equity Plan will be available for future issuance under the 2020 Equity Plan. However, shares netted for tax withholding under the 2020 Equity Plan will be cancelled and will not be available for future issuance. Under the 2020 Equity Plan, during any calendar year no non-employee director participant may be granted awards having a grant date fair value in excess of $500,000. As of March 31, 2021, 3,050,034 shares of common stock remained available for grant under the 2020 Equity Plan.
Historically, the Company has granted service-based restricted stock awards (“RSAs”) and restricted stock units (“RSUs”) to executive officers and employees, which generally vest ratably over a two, three or five-year service period. The Company has granted service-based RSAs and RSUs to directors, which generally vest over a one-year service period. In addition, the Company has granted performance share awards (“PSAs”) and performance share units (“PSUs”) to executive officers that are subject to market-based vesting criteria, which generally vest over a three-year service period. The Company accounts for forfeitures of awards granted under these plans as they occur in determining compensation expense. The Company recognizes compensation expense for all awards subject to market-based vesting conditions regardless of whether it becomes probable that these conditions will be achieved or not, and compensation expense for share-settled awards is not reversed if vesting does not actually occur.
Successor Awards
During September and October 2020, 89,021 shares of service-based RSUs were granted to executive officers and directors under the 2020 Equity Plan. The Company determines compensation expense for these share-settled awards using their fair value at the grant date based on the closing bid price of the Company’s common stock on such date. The weighted average grant date fair value of these RSUs was $17.47 per share.
In September 2020, 189,900 shares of market-based RSUs were granted to executive officers under the 2020 Equity Plan. The awards will vest upon the Successor’s common stock trading for 20 consecutive trading days above a certain daily volume weighted average price (“VWAP”) as follows: 50% will vest if the VWAP exceeds $32.57 per share, an additional 25% if the daily VWAP exceeds $48.86 per share and the final 25% if the daily VWAP exceeds $65.14 per share. The Company recognizes compensation expense based on the fair value as determined by a Monte Carlo valuation model (the “Monte Carlo Model”) over the expected vesting period, which is estimated to be between 1.8 and 3.8 years. The weighted average grant date fair value of these RSUs was $6.54 per share. More information on the inputs of the Monte Carlo Model are explained below. During the three months ended March 31, 2021, the first 50% of these awards vested as the Company’s VWAP exceeded $32.57 per share for 20 consecutive trading days during the period.
During the three months ended March 31, 2021, 358,123 shares of service-based RSUs were granted to executive officers and employees under the 2020 Equity Plan, which vest ratably over either a two or three-year service period. Additionally, during the three months ended March 31, 2021, 117,607 shares of service-based RSUs were granted to executive officers under the 2020 Equity Plan, which