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Partnership Distributions
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Distributions Made to Members or Limited Partners [Abstract]  
Partnership Distributions
4. PARTNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS

Partnership distributions. Under its partnership agreement, the Partnership distributes all of its available cash to unitholders of record on the applicable record date within 55 days following each quarter’s end. The amount of available cash (beyond proper reserves as defined in the partnership agreement) generally is all cash on hand at the end of the quarter, plus, at the discretion of the general partner, working capital borrowings made subsequent to the end of such quarter, less the amount of cash reserves established by the general partner to provide for the proper conduct of the Partnership’s business, including (i) to fund future capital expenditures; (ii) to comply with applicable laws, debt instruments, or other agreements; or (iii) to provide funds for unitholder distributions 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 and are intended to be repaid or refinanced within 12 months. In all cases, working capital borrowings are used solely for working capital purposes or to fund unitholder distributions.
The Board of Directors of the general partner (the “Board”) declared the following cash distributions to the Partnership’s unitholders for the periods presented:
thousands except per-unit amounts
Quarters Ended
Total Quarterly
Per-unit
Distribution		Total Quarterly
Cash Distribution		Distribution
Date		Record
Date
2022
March 31$0.500 $206,197 May 13, 2022May 2, 2022
June 300.500 197,744 August 12, 2022August 1, 2022
September 300.500 197,065 November 14, 2022October 31, 2022
December 310.500 196,569 February 13, 2023February 1, 2023
2023
March 31 (1)
$0.856 $336,987 May 15, 2023May 1, 2023
June 300.5625 221,442 August 14, 2023July 31, 2023
September 300.5750 223,432 November 13, 2023November 1, 2023
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(1)Includes the regular quarterly distribution of $0.500 per unit, or $196.8 million, as well as the Enhanced Distribution of $0.356 per unit discussed below.
4. PARTNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS

To facilitate the distribution of available cash, during 2022 the Partnership adopted a financial policy that provided for an additional distribution (“Enhanced Distribution”) to be paid in conjunction with the regular first-quarter distribution of the following year (beginning in 2023), in a target amount equal to Free cash flow generated in the prior year after subtracting Free cash flow used for the prior year’s debt repayments, regular-quarter distributions, and unit repurchases. This Enhanced Distribution is subject to Board discretion, the establishment of cash reserves for the proper conduct of the Partnership’s business and is also contingent on the attainment of prior year-end net leverage thresholds (the ratio of total principal debt outstanding less total cash on hand as of the end of such period, as compared to trailing-twelve-months Adjusted EBITDA), after taking the Enhanced Distribution for such prior year into effect. Free cash flow and Adjusted EBITDA are defined under the caption Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures within Part I, Item 2 of this Form 10-Q. In April 2023, the Board approved an Enhanced Distribution of $0.356 per unit, or $140.1 million, related to the Partnership’s 2022 performance, which was paid in conjunction with the regular first-quarter 2023 distribution on May 15, 2023.

WES Operating partnership distributions. WES Operating makes quarterly cash distributions to the Partnership and WGR Asset Holding Company LLC (“WGRAH”), a subsidiary of Occidental, in proportion to their share of limited partner interests in WES Operating. See Note 5. WES Operating made and/or declared the following cash distributions to its limited partners for the periods presented:
thousands
Quarters Ended
Total Quarterly
Cash Distribution		Distribution
Date
2022
March 31$213,513 May 2022
June 30213,513 August 2022
September 30213,513 November 2022
December 31213,513 February 2023
2023
March 31 (1)
$342,895 May 2023
June 30226,260 August 2023
September 30229,446 November 2023
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(1)Includes amounts related to the Enhanced Distribution discussed above.

In addition to the distributions above, during the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, WES Operating made distributions of $130.1 million and $441.3 million, respectively, to the Partnership and WGRAH. The Partnership used its portion of the distributions to repurchase common units. See Note 5.