CREDIT FACILITY Narrative (Details) - USD ($)	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
General partner interest percentage	2.00%
Outstanding borrowings	$ 31,000,000	$ 30,000,000
Revolving Credit Facility [Member]
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
Borrowing capacity	50,000,000.0
Letters of credit capacity	$ 10,000,000.0
Collateral	Our obligations under our revolving credit facility are guaranteed by Riverwalk Holdings, LLC (Riverwalk), our wholly owned subsidiary. Riverwalk has pledged a total of 2,107,918 NuStar Energy common units that it owns to secure its guarantee.
Outstanding borrowings	$ 31,000,000
Borrowing availability	$ 19,000,000
Weighted-average interest rate	3.00%	2.80%
Revolving Credit Facility [Member] | NuStar Energy's Consolidated Debt Coverage Ratio [Member]
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
Covenant terms	Our revolving credit facility requires that NuStar Energy’s consolidated debt coverage ratio (as defined in our revolving credit agreement) not exceed 5.50-to-1.00 as of March 31, 2017.
Revolving Credit Facility [Member] | Cash Distributions Covenant [Member]
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
Covenant terms	We are also required to receive cash distributions each fiscal quarter of at least $16.0 million in respect of our ownership interests in NuStar Energy.