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Operations And Organization
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
Operations And Organization [Abstract]  
Operations And Organization
OPERATIONS AND ORGANIZATION:
Unless the context requires otherwise, references to “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Partnership” and “ETE” mean Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. and its consolidated subsidiaries. References to the “Parent Company” mean Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. on a stand-alone basis.
The consolidated financial statements of ETE presented herein include the results of operations of:
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the Parent Company;
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our controlled subsidiaries, ETP and Regency (see description of their respective operations below under “Business Operations”);
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ETP’s and Regency’s consolidated subsidiaries and our wholly-owned subsidiaries that own the general partner and IDRs in ETP and Regency; and
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our wholly-owned subsidiary, Trunkline LNG, which was acquired from ETP in February 2014.
Business Operations
The Parent Company’s principal sources of cash flow are derived from its direct and indirect investments in the limited partner and general partner interests in ETP and Regency and cash flows from the operations of Trunkline LNG. The Parent Company’s primary cash requirements are for general and administrative expenses, debt service requirements and distributions to its partners. Parent Company-only assets are not available to satisfy the debts and other obligations of ETE’s subsidiaries. In order to understand the financial condition of the Parent Company on a stand-alone basis, see Note 17 for stand-alone financial information apart from that of the consolidated partnership information included herein.
Our activities are primarily conducted through our operating subsidiaries as follows:
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ETP is a publicly traded partnership whose operations are conducted through the following subsidiaries:
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ETC OLP, a Texas limited partnership engaged in midstream and intrastate transportation and storage natural gas operations. ETC OLP owns and operates, through its wholly and majority-owned subsidiaries, natural gas gathering systems, intrastate natural gas pipeline systems and gas processing plants and is engaged in the business of purchasing, gathering, transporting, processing, and marketing natural gas and NGLs in the states of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and West Virginia. ETC OLP’s intrastate transportation and storage operations primarily focus on transporting natural gas in Texas through our Oasis pipeline, ET Fuel System, East Texas pipeline and HPL System. ETC OLP’s midstream operations focus on the gathering, compression, treating, conditioning and processing of natural gas, primarily on or through our Southeast Texas System, Eagle Ford System, North Texas System and Northern Louisiana assets. ETC OLP also owns a 70% interest in Lone Star and also owns MACS, a convenience store operator.
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ET Interstate, a Delaware limited liability company with revenues consisting primarily of fees earned from natural gas transportation services and operational gas sales. ET Interstate is the parent company of:
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Transwestern, a Delaware limited liability company engaged in interstate transportation of natural gas. Transwestern’s revenues consist primarily of fees earned from natural gas transportation services and operational gas sales.
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ETC Fayetteville Express Pipeline, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company that directly owns a 50% interest in FEP, which owns 100% of the Fayetteville Express interstate natural gas pipeline.
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ETC Tiger Pipeline, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company engaged in interstate transportation of natural gas.
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CrossCountry, a Delaware limited liability company that indirectly owns a 50% interest in Citrus, which owns 100% of the FGT interstate natural gas pipeline.
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ETC Compression, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company engaged in natural gas compression services and related equipment sales.
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Holdco, a Delaware limited liability company that indirectly owns Panhandle and Sunoco. As discussed in Note 2, ETP acquired ETE’s 60% interest in Holdco on April 30, 2013. Panhandle and Sunoco operations are described as follows:
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Panhandle owns and operates assets in the regulated and unregulated natural gas industry and is primarily engaged in the transportation and storage of natural gas in the United States. As discussed in Note 2, in January 2014, Panhandle consummated a merger with Southern Union, the indirect parent of Panhandle, and PEPL Holdings, the sole limited partner of Panhandle, pursuant to which each of Southern Union and PEPL Holdings were merged with and into Panhandle, with Panhandle surviving the merger.
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Sunoco owns and operates retail marketing assets, which sell gasoline and middle distillates at retail locations and operates convenience stores primarily on the east coast and in the midwest region of the United States.
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Sunoco Logistics, a publicly traded Delaware limited partnership that owns and operates a logistics business, consisting of refined products and crude oil pipelines, terminalling and storage assets, and refined products and crude oil acquisition and marketing assets.
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Regency is a publicly traded partnership engaged in the gathering and processing, compression, treating and transportation of natural gas and the transportation, fractionation and storage of NGLs. Regency focuses on providing midstream services in some of the most prolific natural gas producing regions in the United States, including the Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Barnett, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Utica, Bone Spring, Avalon and Granite Wash shales. Its assets are located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, California, Mississippi, Alabama, New Mexico and the mid-continent region of the United States, which includes Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. Regency also holds a 30% interest in Lone Star.
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Trunkline LNG operates a LNG import terminal, which has approximately 9.0 Bcf of above ground LNG storage capacity and re-gasification facilities on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast near Lake Charles, Louisiana. Trunkline LNG is engaged in interstate commerce and is subject to the rules, regulations and accounting requirements of the FERC.
Our reportable segments reflect the following reportable business segments:
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Investment in ETP, including the consolidated operations of ETP.
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Investment in Regency, including the consolidated operations of Regency.
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Investment in Trunkline LNG, including the operations of Trunkline LNG.
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Corporate and Other, including the following:
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activities of the Parent Company; and
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the goodwill and property, plant and equipment fair value adjustments recorded as a result of the 2004 reverse acquisition of Heritage Propane Partners, L.P.
Preparation of Interim Financial Statements
The accompanying consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2013, which has been derived from audited financial statements, and the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and notes thereto of the Partnership as of March 31, 2014 and for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim consolidated financial information and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete consolidated financial statements. However, management believes that the disclosures made are adequate to make the information not misleading. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for a full year due to the seasonal nature of the Partnership’s operations, maintenance activities of the Partnership’s subsidiaries and the impact of forward natural gas prices and differentials on certain derivative financial instruments that are accounted for using mark-to-market accounting.
In the opinion of management, all adjustments (all of which are normal and recurring) have been made that are necessary to fairly state the consolidated financial position of the Partnership as of March 31, 2014, and the Partnership’s results of operations and cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013. The unaudited interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto presented in the Partnership’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, as filed with the SEC on February 27, 2014.
Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the 2014 presentation. These reclassifications had no impact on net income or total equity.
We record the collection of taxes to be remitted to government authorities on a net basis except for ETP’s retail marketing operations, in which consumer excise taxes on sales of refined products and merchandise are included in both revenues and cost of products sold in the consolidated statements of operations, with no net impact on net income. Excise taxes collected by ETP’s retail marketing operations were $530 million and $514 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
New Accounting Pronouncements
In April 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-08, Presentation of Financial Statements (Topic 205) and Property, Plant, and Equipment (Topic 360): Reporting Discontinued Operations and Disclosures of Disposals of Components of an Entity (“ASU 2014-08”), which changed the requirements for reporting discontinued operations.  Under ASU 2014-08, a disposal of a component of an entity or a group of components of an entity is required to be reported in discontinued operations if the disposal represents a strategic shift that has or will have a major effect on an entity’s operations and financial results.  ASU 2014-08 is effective for all disposals or classifications as held for sale of components of an entity that occur within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2014, and early adoption is permitted. We expect to adopt this standard for the year ending December 31, 2015. ASU 2014-08 could have an impact on whether transactions will be reported in discontinued operations in the future, as well as the disclosures required when a component of an entity is disposed.