Property, Plant and Equipment

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

6. PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

A summary of the historical cost of property, plant and equipment is as follows:



thousands	Estimated Useful Life	March 31, 2015		December 31, 2014
Land	n/a	$	3,260	$	2,884
Gathering systems	3 to 47 years	5,232,882		4,972,892
Pipelines and equipment	15 to 45 years	135,916		151,107
Assets under construction	n/a	424,779		483,347
Other	3 to 40 years	18,077		16,420
Total property, plant and equipment		5,814,914		5,626,650
Accumulated depreciation		1,103,643		1,055,207
Net property, plant and equipment		$	4,711,271	$	4,571,443

The cost of property classified as “Assets under construction” is excluded from capitalized costs being depreciated. These amounts represent property that is not yet suitable to be placed into productive service as of the respective balance sheet date.

During 2015, WES recognized impairments of $8.2 million, primarily due to the abandonment of compressors at the MIGC system and the DJ Basin complex.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale. Includes, but is not limited to, accounting policies and methodology, roll forwards, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, including composite depreciation, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, useful lives and method used, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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