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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
Environmental Matters
The Company’s refineries are subject to extensive and frequently changing federal, state and local laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, those relating to the discharge of materials into the environment or that otherwise relate to the protection of the environment, waste management and the characteristics and the compositions of fuels. Compliance with existing and anticipated laws and regulations can increase the overall cost of operating the refineries, including remediation, operating costs and capital costs to construct, maintain and upgrade equipment and facilities.

In connection with the Paulsboro refinery acquisition, the Company assumed certain environmental remediation obligations. The environmental liability of $10,426 recorded as of September 30, 2013 ($9,669 as of December 31, 2012) represents the present value of expected future costs discounted at a rate of 8%. The current portion of the environmental liability is recorded in accrued expenses and the non-current portion is recorded in other long-term liabilities. A trust fund related to this liability in the amount of $12,116 and $12,114, acquired in the Paulsboro acquisition, is recorded as restricted cash in deferred charges and other assets, net as of September 30, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.

In connection with the acquisition of the Delaware City assets, Valero Energy Corporation ("Valero") remains responsible for certain pre-acquisition environmental obligations up to $20,000 and the predecessor to Valero in ownership of the refinery retains other historical obligations.

In connection with the acquisition of the Delaware City assets and the Paulsboro refinery, the Company and Valero purchased ten year, $75,000 environmental insurance policies to insure against unknown environmental liabilities at each site. In connection with the Toledo refinery acquisition, Sunoco, Inc. (R&M) ("Sunoco") remains responsible for environmental remediation for conditions that existed on the closing date for twenty years from March 1, 2011.

In 2010, New York State adopted a Low-Sulfur Heating Oil mandate that, beginning July 1, 2012, requires all heating oil sold in New York State to contain no more than 15 PPM sulfur. Other states have laws with various implementation dates that also require lower levels of sulfur in heating oils. Not all of the heating oil we currently produce meets these specifications. The Company has made and is continuing to make certain processing improvements to shift conventional heating oil production to ultra-low sulfur heating oil and ultra-low sulfur diesel in order to comply with these new mandates. The Company plans to continue increasing ultra-low sulfur distillate production over the next several years while marketing conventional heating oil in states where regulations have not changed. The mandate and other requirements do not currently have a material impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

In addition, on June 1, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") issued final amendments to the New Source Performance Standards (“NSPS”) for petroleum refineries, including standards for emissions of nitrogen oxides from process heaters and work practice standards and monitoring requirements for flares. The Company has evaluated the impact of the regulation and amended standards on its refinery operations and currently does not expect the cost to comply by July 1, 2015 with the amended NSPS to be material.

The Company is aware that the EPA has drafted the proposed Tier 3 Motor Vehicle Emission and Fuel Standards. The draft Standards are in the formal public comment period at this time. The gasoline currently manufactured by the Company's refineries does not meet a portion of the proposed requirements, specifically as related to meeting the proposed 10  ppm annual average gasoline sulfur requirement. The EPA has included potential options in other portions of the proposed Standards that the Company's gasoline products may meet if adopted in the final rulemaking. The Company is continuing to evaluate the potential impact of these proposed Standards.

On June 14, 2013, two administrative appeals were filed by the Sierra Club and Delaware Audubon regarding an air permit Delaware City Refining Company LLC (“Delaware City Refining”) obtained to allow loading of crude oil onto barges.  The appeals allege that both the loading of crude oil onto barges and the operation of the Delaware City Refining double-loop rail terminal violate Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act.  A hearing on the first appeal before the State Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board occurred on July 16, 2013, and the board ruled in favor of Delaware City Refining dismissing the appeal for lack of standing.  Sierra Club and Delaware Audubon have appealed that decision to the Delaware Superior Court, New Castle County, Case No. N13A-09-001 ALR, and Delaware City Refining and the state filed cross-appeals.  No schedule has yet been set for the appeal in Superior Court.  A hearing on the second appeals before the Environmental Appeals Board, case no. 2013-06, has been scheduled for January 21, 2014 with motions to dismiss scheduled to be heard on December 10, 2013.

The Company is also currently subject to certain other existing environmental claims and proceedings. The Company believes that there is only a remote possibility that future costs related to any of these other known contingent liability exposures would have a material impact on its financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

PBF LLC Limited Liability Company Agreement
The holders of limited liability company interests in PBF LLC, including PBF Energy, generally have to include for purposes of calculating their U.S. federal, state and local income taxes their share of any taxable income of PBF LLC. Taxable income of PBF LLC generally is allocated to the holders of PBF LLC units (including PBF Energy) pro rata in accordance with their respective share of the net profits and net losses of PBF LLC. In general, PBF LLC is required to make periodic tax distributions to the members of PBF LLC, including PBF Energy, pro rata in accordance with their respective percentage interests for such period (as determined under the amended and restated limited liability company agreement of PBF LLC), subject to available cash and applicable law and contractual restrictions (including pursuant to our debt instruments) and based on certain assumptions. Generally, these tax distributions will be an amount equal to our estimate of the taxable income of PBF LLC for the year multiplied by an assumed tax rate equal to the highest effective marginal combined U.S. federal, state and local income tax rate prescribed for an individual or corporate resident in New York, New York (taking into account the nondeductibility of certain expenses). If, with respect to any given calendar year, the aggregate periodic tax distributions were less than the actual taxable income of PBF LLC multiplied by the assumed tax rate, PBF LLC will make a “true up” tax distribution, no later than March 15 of the following year, equal to such difference, subject to the available cash and borrowings of PBF LLC.
Tax Receivable Agreement
PBF Energy entered into a tax receivable agreement with the PBF LLC Series A and PBF LLC Series B Unit holders (the “Tax Receivable Agreement”) that provides for the payment by PBF Energy to such persons of an amount equal to 85% of the amount of the benefits, if any, that PBF Energy is deemed to realize as a result of (i) increases in tax basis, as described below, and (ii) certain other tax benefits related to entering into the Tax Receivable Agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. For purposes of the Tax Receivable Agreement, the benefit deemed realized by PBF Energy will be computed by comparing the actual income tax liability of PBF Energy (calculated with certain assumptions) to the amount of such taxes that PBF Energy would have been required to pay had there been no increase to the tax basis of the assets of PBF LLC as a result of purchases or exchanges of PBF LLC Series A Units for shares of PBF Energy's Class A common stock and had PBF Energy not entered into the Tax Receivable Agreement. The term of the Tax Receivable Agreement will continue until all such tax benefits have been utilized or expired unless: (i) PBF Energy exercises its right to terminate the Tax Receivable Agreement, (ii) PBF Energy breaches any of its material obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement or (iii) certain changes of control occur, in which case all obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement will generally be accelerated and due as calculated under certain assumptions.

The payment obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement are obligations of PBF Energy and not of PBF LLC or PBF Holding. In general, PBF Energy expects to obtain funding for these payments by causing PBF Holding to distribute cash to PBF LLC, which will then distribute this cash, generally as tax distributions, on a pro-rata basis to its owners. Such owners include PBF Energy, which holds a 40.9% interest as of September 30, 2013.