4. PARTNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS

WGP partnership distributions. WGP’s partnership agreement requires WGP to distribute all of its available cash (as defined in its partnership agreement) to WGP unitholders of record on the applicable record date within 55 days of the end of each quarter. The Board of Directors of WGP GP (the “Board of Directors”) declared the following cash distributions to WGP unitholders for the periods presented:



thousands except per-unit amounts Quarters Ended	Total Quarterly Distribution per Unit		Total Quarterly Cash Distribution		Date of Distribution
2017
March 31	$	0.49125	$	107,549	May 2017
June 30	0.52750		115,487		August 2017
September 30	0.53750		117,677		November 2017
December 31	0.54875		120,140		February 2018
2018
March 31 ⁽¹⁾	$	0.56875	$	124,518	May 2018


⁽¹⁾	The Board of Directors declared a cash distribution to WGP unitholders for the first quarter of 2018 of $0.56875 per unit, or $124.5 million in aggregate. The cash distribution is payable on May 24, 2018, to WGP unitholders of record at the close of business on May 2, 2018.

4. PARTNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS (CONTINUED)

WES partnership distributions. WES’s partnership agreement requires WES to distribute all of its available cash (as defined in WES’s partnership agreement) to WES unitholders of record on the applicable record date within 45 days of the end of each quarter. The Board of Directors of WES GP declared the following cash distributions to WES’s common and general partner unitholders for the periods presented:



thousands except per-unit amounts Quarters Ended	Total Quarterly Distribution per Unit		Total Quarterly Cash Distribution		Date of Distribution
2017
March 31	$	0.875	$	188,753	May 2017
June 30	0.890		207,491		August 2017
September 30	0.905		212,038		November 2017
December 31	0.920		216,586		February 2018
2018
March 31 ⁽¹⁾	$	0.935	$	221,133	May 2018

⁽¹⁾

The Board of Directors of WES GP declared a cash distribution to WES unitholders for the first quarter of 2018 of $0.935 per unit, or $221.1 million in aggregate, including incentive distributions, but excluding distributions on WES Class C units (see WES Class C unit distributions below). The cash distribution is payable on May 14, 2018, to WES unitholders of record at the close of business on May 2, 2018.

WES’s available cash. The amount of available cash (as defined in WES’s partnership agreement) generally is all cash on hand at the end of the quarter, plus, at the discretion of WES GP, working capital borrowings made subsequent to the end of such quarter, less the amount of cash reserves established by WES GP to provide for the proper conduct of WES’s business, including reserves to fund future capital expenditures; to comply with applicable laws, debt instruments or other agreements; or to provide funds for distributions to WES unitholders and to WES GP for any one or more of the next four quarters. Working capital borrowings generally include borrowings made under a credit facility or similar financing arrangement. Working capital borrowings may only be those that, at the time of such borrowings, were intended to be repaid within 12 months. In all cases, working capital borrowings are used solely for working capital purposes or to fund distributions to partners.

WES Class C unit distributions. WES’s Class C units receive quarterly distributions at a rate equivalent to WES’s common units. The distributions are paid in the form of additional Class C units (“PIK Class C units”) until the scheduled conversion date on March 1, 2020 (unless earlier converted), and the Class C units are disregarded with respect to WES’s distributions of WES’s available cash until they are converted into WES common units. The number of additional PIK Class C units to be issued in connection with a distribution payable on the Class C units is determined by dividing the corresponding distribution attributable to the Class C units by the volume-weighted-average price of WES’s common units for the ten days immediately preceding the payment date for the WES common unit distribution, less a 6% discount. WES records the PIK Class C unit distributions at fair value at the time of issuance. This Level 2 fair value measurement uses WES’s unit price as a significant input in the determination of the fair value. See Note 5 for further discussion of the WES Class C units.

WES Series A Preferred unit distributions. As further described in Note 5, WES issued Series A Preferred units representing limited partner interests in WES to private investors in 2016. The Series A Preferred unitholders received quarterly distributions in cash equal to $0.68 per Series A Preferred unit, subject to certain adjustments. On March 1, 2017, 50% of the outstanding WES Series A Preferred units converted into WES common units on a one-for-one basis, and on May 2, 2017, all remaining WES Series A Preferred units converted into WES common units on a one-for-one basis. Such converted WES common units were entitled to distributions made to WES common unitholders with respect to the quarter during which the applicable conversion occurred and did not include a prorated WES Series A Preferred unit distribution. For the quarter ended March 31, 2017, the WES Series A Preferred unitholders received an aggregate cash distribution of $7.5 million (paid in May 2017).

4. PARTNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS (CONTINUED)

WES’s general partner interest and incentive distribution rights. As of March 31, 2018, WES GP was entitled to 1.5% of all quarterly distributions that WES makes prior to its liquidation and, as the holder of the incentive distribution rights (“IDRs”), was entitled to incentive distributions at the maximum distribution sharing percentage of 48.0% for all periods presented, after the minimum quarterly distribution and the target distribution levels had been achieved. The maximum distribution sharing percentage of 49.5% does not include any distributions that WES GP may receive on common units that it may acquire.