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Related-Party Transactions
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2025
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 
March 31,
thousands20252024
Revenues and other
Service revenues – fee based$541,745 $489,729 
Service revenues – product based11,859 14,057 
Product sales4,798 (3,977)
Total revenues and other558,402 499,809 
Equity income, net – related parties (1)
20,435 32,819 
Operating expenses
Cost of product (2)
(14,014)(27,412)
Operation and maintenance1,921 1,439 
General and administrative31 — 
Total operating expenses(12,062)(25,973)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)See Note 7.
(2)Includes related-party natural-gas and NGLs imbalances.

Balance sheets
thousandsMarch 31,
2025		December 31,
2024
Assets
Accounts receivable, net$393,454 $401,315 
Other current assets8,843 6,671 
Equity investments (1)
527,526 541,435 
Other assets38,717 41,641 
Total assets968,540 991,062 
Liabilities
Accounts and imbalance payables37,257 20,609 
Accrued liabilities5,165 4,717 
Other liabilities (2)
534,612 504,415 
Total liabilities577,034 529,741 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)See Note 7.
(2)Includes contract liabilities from contracts with customers. See Note 2.
6. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Statements of cash flows
Three Months Ended 
March 31,
thousands20252024
Distributions from equity-investment earnings – related parties
$23,337 $29,304 
Distributions from equity investments in excess of cumulative earnings – related parties11,007 19,033 
Distributions to Partnership unitholders (1)
(152,899)(111,689)
Distributions to WES Operating unitholders (2)
(6,949)(4,591)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(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.

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 
March 31,
thousands20252024
General and administrative (1)
$1,537 $1,306 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Includes an intercompany service fee between the Partnership and WES Operating.

Balance sheets
thousandsMarch 31,
2025		December 31,
2024
Accounts receivable, net (1)
$431,569 $401,315 
Other current assets6,567 6,263 
Other assets35,957 38,421 
Accounts and imbalance payables (1)
37,257 46,773 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)Includes balances related to transactions between the Partnership and WES Operating.

Statements of cash flows
Three Months Ended 
March 31,
thousands20252024
Distributions to WES Operating unitholders (1)
$(347,356)$(229,446)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
(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, treating, processing, stabilization, 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 31% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Crude-oil and NGLs throughput (excluding equity-investment throughput) attributable to production owned or controlled by Occidental was 91% and 89% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Produced-water throughput attributable to production owned or controlled by Occidental was 80% and 77% for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, 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.

Operating leases. Certain surface-use and salt-water disposal agreements between an affiliate of Occidental and certain wholly owned subsidiaries of the Partnership are classified as operating leases (see Related-party commercial agreement below). In addition, the Partnership has operating leases for field offices with Occidental as the lessor.

Related-party expenses. Operation and maintenance expense includes amounts accrued for or paid to related parties for field-related costs, 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, between WES Operating GP and Occidental (“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 the Partnership amended certain West Texas surface-use and salt-water disposal agreements 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 amended agreements were $30.0 million at the time the agreement was executed. As a result of the amendments, (i) these agreements are classified as operating leases and (ii) a 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.