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Related-Party Transactions
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2024
Related Party Fees and Other Arrangements, Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Limited Partnership (LP) [Abstract]  
Related-Party Transactions
6. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Summary of related-party transactions. The following tables summarize material related-party transactions included in the Partnership’s consolidated financial statements:
Statements of operations
 Three Months Ended 
September 30,		Nine Months Ended 
September 30,
thousands2024202320242023
Revenues and other
Service revenues – fee based$530,434 $454,039 $1,533,251 $1,300,870 
Service revenues – product based13,664 (234)44,214 14,524 
Product sales1,109 9,818 1,642 38,597 
Total revenues and other545,207 463,623 1,579,107 1,353,991 
Equity income, net – related parties (1)
23,977 35,494 84,227 116,839 
Operating expenses
Cost of product (2)
(14,638)(37,083)(46,685)(56,214)
Operation and maintenance2,523 843 8,665 2,493 
General and administrative45 414 299 698 
Total operating expenses(12,070)(35,826)(37,721)(53,023)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)See Note 7.
(2)Includes related-party natural-gas and NGLs imbalances.

Balance sheets
thousandsSeptember 30,
2024		December 31,
2023
Assets
Accounts receivable, net$393,740 $358,141 
Other current assets3,140 1,260 
Equity investments (1)
535,172 904,535 
Other assets40,871 43,216 
Total assets972,923 1,307,152 
Liabilities
Accounts and imbalance payables57,414 38,541 
Accrued liabilities5,029 4,979 
Other liabilities (2)
472,075 335,320 
Total liabilities534,518 378,840 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)See Note 7.
(2)Includes contract liabilities from contracts with customers. See Note 2.
6. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Statements of cash flows
Nine Months Ended 
September 30,
thousands20242023
Distributions from equity-investment earnings – related parties
$83,091 $115,897 
Contributions to equity investments – related parties— (1,153)
Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings – related parties27,560 31,715 
Distributions to Partnership unitholders (1)
(451,613)(382,438)
Distributions to WES Operating unitholders (2)
(18,502)(18,260)
Unit repurchases from Occidental (3)
— (127,500)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Represents common and general partner unit distributions paid to Occidental pursuant to the partnership agreement of the Partnership. See Note 4 and Note 5.
(2)Represents distributions paid to Occidental, through its ownership of WGRAH, pursuant to WES Operating’s partnership agreement. See Note 4 and Note 5.
(3)Represents common units repurchased from Occidental. See Note 5.

The following tables summarize material related-party transactions for WES Operating (which are included in the Partnership’s consolidated financial statements) to the extent the amounts differ materially from the Partnership’s consolidated financial statements:
Statements of operations
 Three Months Ended 
September 30,		Nine Months Ended 
September 30,
thousands2024202320242023
General and administrative (1)
$944 $1,137 $3,292 $3,271 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Includes an intercompany service fee between the Partnership and WES Operating.

Balance sheets
thousandsSeptember 30,
2024		December 31,
2023
Accounts receivable, net (1)
$396,943 $358,141 
Other current assets2,722 1,235 
Other assets37,616 41,405 
Accounts and imbalance payables (1)
57,414 69,472 
Accrued liabilities4,713 4,662 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Includes balances related to transactions between the Partnership and WES Operating.

Statements of cash flows
Nine Months Ended 
September 30,
thousands20242023
Distributions to WES Operating unitholders (1)
$(924,796)$(912,770)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Represents distributions paid to the Partnership and Occidental, through its ownership of WGRAH, pursuant to WES Operating’s partnership agreement. See Note 4 and Note 5.
6. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Related-party revenues. Related-party revenues include amounts earned by the Partnership from services provided to Occidental and from the sale of natural gas, condensate, and NGLs to Occidental.

Gathering and processing agreements. The Partnership has significant gathering, processing, and produced-water disposal arrangements with affiliates of Occidental on most of its systems. While Occidental is the contracting counterparty of the Partnership, these arrangements with Occidental include not just Occidental-produced volumes, but also, in some instances, the volumes of other working-interest owners of Occidental who rely on the Partnership’s facilities and infrastructure to bring their volumes to market. Natural-gas throughput (excluding equity-investment throughput) attributable to production owned or controlled by Occidental was 36% and 34% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively, and 34% for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023. Crude-oil and NGLs throughput (excluding equity-investment throughput) attributable to production owned or controlled by Occidental was 92% and 90% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively, and 87% for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023. Produced-water throughput attributable to production owned or controlled by Occidental was 78% and 77% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively, and 77% and 78% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively.
The Partnership is currently discussing varying interpretations of certain contractual provisions with Occidental regarding the calculation of the cost-of-service rates under an oil-gathering contract related to the Partnership’s DJ Basin oil-gathering system. If such discussions are resolved in a manner adverse to the Partnership, such resolution could have a negative impact on the Partnership’s financial condition and results of operations, including a reduction in rates and a non-cash charge to earnings.

Marketing Services. Prior to January 1, 2021, Occidental provided marketing-related services to certain of the Partnership’s subsidiaries. While the Partnership now markets and sells substantially all of its crude oil, residue gas, and NGLs directly to third parties, it does still have some marketing agreements with affiliates of Occidental, the activity for which is reflected in the related-party statements of operations above.

Related-party expenses. Operation and maintenance expense includes amounts accrued for or paid to related parties for field-related costs, shared field offices, and easements (see Related-party commercial agreement below) supporting the Partnership’s operations at certain assets. General and administrative expense includes amounts accrued for or paid to Occidental for certain reimbursed expenses pursuant to the provisions of the Partnership’s and WES Operating’s agreements with Occidental. Cost of product expense includes amounts related to certain continuing marketing arrangements with affiliates of Occidental, related-party imbalances, and transactions with affiliates accounted for under the equity method of accounting. See Marketing Services in the section above. Related-party expenses bear no direct relationship to related-party revenues, and third-party expenses bear no direct relationship to third-party revenues.

Services Agreement. Occidental performed certain centralized corporate functions for the Partnership and WES Operating pursuant to the agreement dated as of December 31, 2019, by and among Occidental, Anadarko, and WES Operating GP (“Services Agreement”). Most of the administrative and operational services previously provided by Occidental fully transitioned to the Partnership by December 31, 2021, with certain limited transition services remaining in place pursuant to the terms of the Services Agreement.
6. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Construction reimbursement agreements and purchases and sales with related parties. From time to time, the Partnership enters into construction reimbursement agreements with Occidental providing that the Partnership will manage the construction of certain midstream infrastructure for Occidental in the Partnership’s areas of operation. Such arrangements generally provide for a reimbursement of costs incurred by the Partnership on a cost or cost-plus basis.
Additionally, from time to time, in support of the Partnership’s business, the Partnership purchases and sells equipment, inventory, and other miscellaneous assets from or to Occidental or its affiliates.

Related-party commercial agreement. During the first quarter of 2021, an affiliate of Occidental and certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Partnership entered into a Commercial Understanding Agreement (“CUA”). Under the CUA, certain West Texas surface-use and salt-water disposal agreements were amended to reduce usage fees owed by the Partnership in exchange for the forgiveness of certain deficiency fees owed by Occidental and other unrelated contractual amendments. The present value of the reduced usage fees under the CUA was $30.0 million at the time the agreement was executed. Also, as a result of the amendments under the CUA, these agreements are classified as operating leases and a $30.0 million right-of-use (“ROU”) asset, included in Other assets on the consolidated balance sheets, was recognized during the first quarter of 2021. The ROU asset is being amortized to Operation and maintenance expense through 2038, the remaining term of the agreements.

Customer concentration. Occidental was the only customer from which revenues exceeded 10% of consolidated revenues for all periods presented in the consolidated statements of operations.