ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Organization

Organization

Buckeye Partners, L.P. is a publicly traded Delaware master limited partnership and its limited partnership units representing limited partner interests (“LP Units”) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker symbol “BPL.”  Buckeye GP LLC (“Buckeye GP”) is our general partner.  As used in these Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, “we,” “us,” “our” and “Buckeye” mean Buckeye Partners, L.P. and, where the context requires, includes our subsidiaries.

Buckeye owns and operates a diversified network of integrated assets providing midstream logistic solutions, primarily consisting of the transportation, storage and marketing of liquid petroleum products.  We are one of the largest independent liquid petroleum products pipeline operators in the United States in terms of volumes delivered, miles of pipeline and active products terminals across our portfolio of pipelines, inland terminals and marine terminals located primarily in the East Coast and Gulf Coast regions of the United States and in the Caribbean.  Our flagship marine terminal in The Bahamas, Bahamas Oil Refining Company International Limited (“BORCO”), is one of the largest marine crude oil and refined petroleum products storage facilities in the world and provides an array of logistics and blending services for petroleum products.  Our network of marine terminals enables us to facilitate global flows of crude oil, refined petroleum products, and other commodities, and to offer our customers connectivity to some of the world’s most important bulk storage and blending hubs.  In September 2014, we expanded our network of marine midstream assets by acquiring a controlling interest in a company with assets located in Corpus Christi and the Eagle Ford play in Texas.  We are also a wholesale distributor of refined petroleum products in certain areas served by our pipelines and terminals.  Finally, Buckeye operates and/or maintains third party pipelines under agreements with major oil and gas, petrochemical and chemical companies, and performs certain engineering and construction management services for third parties.

On December 31, 2014, we completed the sale of our Natural Gas Storage disposal group and have reported the final working capital adjustments as discontinued operations for the three months ended March 31, 2015.  For additional information, see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.

Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation

Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Accordingly, our financial statements reflect all normal and recurring adjustments that are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair presentation of our results of operations for the interim periods.  The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of our subsidiaries controlled by us and variable interest entities (“VIE”) of which we are the primary beneficiary. We have eliminated all intercompany transactions in consolidation.

We believe that the disclosures in these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are adequate to make the information presented not misleading.  These interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.

Recent Accounting Developments

Recent Accounting Developments

Debt Issuance Costs.  In April 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued guidance to simplify the presentation of debt issuance costs. The amendments require that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability, consistent with debt discounts. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015, and interim periods within those annual periods, with early adoption permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact the adoption of this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.

Consolidations.  In February 2015, the FASB issued guidance changing the criteria for reporting entities that are required to evaluate whether they should consolidate certain legal entities. The amendments require additional testing to determine if a legal entity qualifies as a VIE and whether the entity should be consolidated. These provisions are effective prospectively for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2015, and interim periods within those annual periods, with early adoption permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact the adoption of this guidance will have on our consolidated financial statements.