RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

We had a receivable from related parties of $16.4 million and $15.7 million as of September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, mainly representing payroll, employee benefit plans and unit-based compensation for our employees providing services to NuStar Energy and NuStar Energy’s joint ventures. We also had a long-term receivable from related party of $30.6 million and $33.5 million as of September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, representing long-term employee benefits.

The following table summarizes information pertaining to related party transactions:

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2015		2014		2015		2014
	(Thousands of Dollars)
Expenses for payroll, employee benefit plans and unit-based compensation	$	49,864	$	49,793	$	150,598	$	144,146
Other expenses	$	184	$	197	$	402	$	377

NuStar Energy

GP Services Agreement. NuStar Energy and NuStar GP, LLC, our wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a services agreement, effective January 1, 2008 (the GP Services Agreement). The GP Services Agreement provides that NuStar GP, LLC will furnish administrative and certain operating services necessary to conduct the business of NuStar Energy. All employees providing services to both NuStar GP Holdings and NuStar Energy are employed by NuStar GP, LLC; therefore, NuStar Energy reimburses NuStar GP, LLC for all employee costs, other than the expenses allocated to NuStar GP Holdings (the Holdco Administrative Services Expense). The GP Services Agreement will terminate on December 31, 2016, renewing automatically every two years unless terminated by either party upon six months’ prior written notice. For each of the three months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, the Holdco Administrative Services Expense totaled $0.4 million, and $1.3 million for each of the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014.

Axeon

On February 26, 2014, NuStar Energy completed the 2014 Asphalt Sale to Lindsay Goldberg. As a result of the 2014 Asphalt Sale, we ceased reporting transactions between us and Axeon as related party transactions in our consolidated financial statements on February 26, 2014.