Intangible Assets

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Intangible Assets

Intangible Assets

11. INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Intangible assets are comprised of customer and marketing contracts. The intangible assets balance includes $145.2 million related to the Gathering Agreement with Sanchez Energy that was entered into as part of the Western Catarina Midstream transaction. Pursuant to the 15-year agreement, Sanchez Energy tenders all of its crude oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbon-based product volumes on 35,000 dedicated acres in the Western Catarina of the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas for processing and transportation through Western Catarina Midstream, with a right to tender additional volumes outside of the dedicated acreage. These intangible assets are being amortized using the straight-line method over the 15 year life of the agreement.

Amortization expense for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 was $13.5 million, respectively. These costs are amortized to depreciation, depletion, and amortization expense in our consolidated statement of operations. Intangible assets as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 are detailed below (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2019		2018
Beginning balance	$	158,706	$	172,166
Amortization		(13,460)		(13,460)
Ending balance	$	145,246	$	158,706