Property, Plant And Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Property, Plant And Equipment [Abstract]

(5) Property, Plant and Equipment:

Property, plant and equipment, net is as follows:



($ in thousands)	September 30, 2013		December 31, 2012

Property, plant and equipment	$	14,710,342	$	14,353,763
Less: Accumulated depreciation		(7,420,775)		(6,848,867)
Property, plant and equipment, net	$	7,289,567	$	7,504,896

Depreciation expense is principally based on the composite group method. Depreciation expense was $208.7 million and $209.9 million, and $636.2 million and $628.8 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012, respectively. As a result of an independent study of the estimated remaining useful lives of our plant assets, we adopted new estimated remaining useful lives for certain plant assets as of October 1, 2012, with an immaterial impact to depreciation expense.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale. Includes, but is not limited to, accounting policies and methodology, roll forwards, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, including composite depreciation, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, useful lives and method used, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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