Investment in Joint Venture

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Business Combinations [Abstract]

Investment in Joint Venture

Investment in Joint Venture

On October 2, 2019, HEP Cushing LLC (“HEP Cushing”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HEP, and Plains Marketing, L.P. (“PMLP”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (“Plains”), formed a 50/50 joint venture, Cushing Connect Pipeline & Terminal LLC (the “Cushing Connect Joint Venture”), for (i) the development and construction of a new 160,000 barrel per day common carrier crude oil pipeline (the “Cushing Connect Pipeline”) that will connect the Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil hub to the Tulsa, Oklahoma refining complex owned by a subsidiary of HFC and (ii) the ownership and operation of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil storage in Cushing, Oklahoma (the “Cushing Connect JV Terminal”). The Cushing Connect JV Terminal was fully in service beginning in April 2020. The Cushing Connect Pipeline is expected to be in service during the first quarter of 2021. Long-term commercial agreements have been entered into to support the Cushing Connect Joint Venture assets.

The Cushing Connect Joint Venture contracted with an affiliate of HEP to manage the construction and operation of the Cushing Connect Pipeline and with an affiliate of Plains to manage the operation of the Cushing Connect JV Terminal. The total Cushing Connect Joint Venture investment will be shared proportionately among the partners, and HEP estimates its share of the cost of the Cushing Connect JV Terminal contributed by Plains and Cushing Connect Pipeline construction costs will be approximately $65 million.

The Cushing Connect Joint Venture legal entities are variable interest entities ("VIEs") as defined under GAAP. A VIE is a legal entity if it has any one of the following characteristics: (i) the entity does not have sufficient equity at risk for the entity to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support; (ii) the at risk equity holders, as a group, lack the characteristics of a controlling financial interest; or (iii) the entity is structured with non-substantive voting rights. The Cushing Connect Joint Venture legal entities do not have sufficient equity at risk to finance their activities without additional financial support. Since HEP is constructing and will operate the Cushing Connect Pipeline, HEP has more ability to direct the activities that most significantly impact the financial performance of the Cushing Connect Joint Venture and Cushing Connect Pipeline legal entities. Therefore, HEP consolidates those legal entities. We do not have the ability to direct the activities that most significantly impact the Cushing Connect JV Terminal legal entity, and therefore, we account for our interest in the Cushing Connect JV Terminal legal entity using the equity method of accounting.