Inventory Financing Agreements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

The following table summarizes our outstanding obligations under our inventory financing agreements (in thousands):


	December 31,
	2020		2019
Supply and Offtake Agreements	$	312,185	$	517,001
Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement	111,501		139,161
Obligations under inventory financing agreements	$	423,686	$	656,162

Supply and Offtake Agreements

On June 1, 2015, we entered into several agreements with J. Aron to support the operations of our Par East Hawaii refinery (the “Supply and Offtake Agreements”). The Supply and Offtake Agreements mature on May 31, 2021 and have a one-year extension option upon mutual agreement of the parties. We are evaluating options to extend or replace the Supply and Offtake Agreements. Under the Supply and Offtake Agreements, J. Aron may enter into agreements with third parties whereby J. Aron will remit payments to these third parties for refinery procurement contracts for which we will become immediately obligated to reimburse J. Aron. As of December 31, 2020, we had no obligations due to J. Aron under this contractual undertakings agreement. On June 27, 2018, we and J. Aron amended the Supply and Offtake Agreements to increase the amount that we may defer under the deferred payment arrangement. Prior to June 27, 2018, we had the right to defer payments owed to J. Aron up to the lesser of $125 million or 85% of eligible accounts receivable and inventory. Effective June 27, 2018, we have the right to defer payments owed to J. Aron up to the lesser of $165 million or 85% of eligible accounts receivable and inventory. On December 5, 2018, we amended the Supply and Offtake Agreements to account for additional processing capacity expected to be provided through the Par West Acquisition. The December 5, 2018 amendment to the Supply and Offtake Agreements also (i) required us to increase our margin requirements by an aggregate $2.5 million by making certain additional margin payments on December 19, 2018, March 1, 2019, and June 3, 2019, and (ii) only allows dividends, payments, or other distributions with respect to any equity interests in Par Hawaii Refining, LLC (“PHR”), our wholly owned subsidiary, in limited and restricted circumstances.

During the term of the Supply and Offtake Agreements, J. Aron and we will identify mutually acceptable contracts for the purchase of crude oil from third parties. Per the Supply and Offtake Agreements, J. Aron will provide up to 150 Mbpd of crude oil to our Hawaii refineries. Additionally, we agreed to sell and J. Aron agreed to buy, at market prices, refined products produced at our Hawaii refineries. We will then repurchase the refined products from J. Aron prior to selling the refined products to our retail operations or to third parties. The agreements also provide for the lease of crude oil and certain refined product storage facilities to J. Aron. Following the expiration or termination of the Supply and Offtake Agreements, we are obligated to purchase the crude oil and refined product inventories then owned by J. Aron and located at the leased storage facilities at then-current market prices.

Though title to the crude oil and certain refined product inventories resides with J. Aron, the Supply and Offtake Agreements are accounted for similar to a product financing arrangement; therefore, the crude oil and refined products inventories will continue to be included in our consolidated balance sheets until processed and sold to a third party. Each reporting period, we record a liability in an amount equal to the amount we expect to pay to repurchase the inventory held by J. Aron based on current market prices.

The Supply and Offtake Agreements also include a deferred payment arrangement (“Deferred Payment Arrangement”) whereby we can defer payments owed under the agreements up to the lesser of $165 million or 85% of the eligible accounts receivable and inventory. Upon execution of the Supply and Offtake Agreements, we paid J. Aron a deferral arrangement fee of $1.3 million. The deferred amounts under the Deferred Payment Arrangement bear interest at a rate equal to three-month LIBOR plus 3.50% per annum. We also agreed to pay a deferred payment availability fee equal to 0.75% of the unused capacity under the Deferred Payment Arrangement. Amounts outstanding under the Deferred Payment Arrangement are included in Obligations under inventory financing agreements on our consolidated balance sheets. Changes in the amount outstanding under the Deferred Payment Arrangement are included within Cash flows from financing activities on the consolidated statements of cash flows. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the capacity of the Deferred Payment Arrangement was $80.1 million and $155.5 million, respectively, and we had $78.6 million and $97.5 million outstanding, respectively.

Under the Supply and Offtake Agreements, we pay or receive certain fees from J. Aron based on changes in market prices over time. In February 2016, we fixed the market fee for the period from December 1, 2016 through May 31, 2018 for $14.6 million to be settled in eighteen equal monthly payments. In 2017, we fixed the market fee for the period from

June 1, 2018 through May 2021 for an additional $2.2 million. In 2020, we fixed the market fee for the period from February 1, 2020 through April 1, 2021 for an additional $0.8 million to be settled in fifteen payments. The receivable from J. Aron was recorded as a reduction to our Obligations under inventory financing agreements as allowed under the Supply and Offtake Agreements. As of both December 31, 2020 and 2019, the receivable was $0.5 million.

Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement

In connection with the consummation of the Washington Acquisition, we became a party to the Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement with MLC that provides a structured financing arrangement based on U.S. Oil’s crude oil and refined products inventories and associated accounts receivable. Under this arrangement, U.S. Oil purchases crude oil supplied from third-party suppliers and MLC provides credit support for such crude oil purchases. MLC’s credit support can consist of either providing a payment guaranty, causing the issuance of a letter of credit from a third-party issuing bank, or purchasing crude oil directly from third parties on our behalf. U.S. Oil holds title to all crude oil and refined products inventories at all times and pledges such inventories, together with all receivables arising from the sales of the same, exclusively to MLC. On February 11, 2021, we and MLC amended the Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement and extended the term through March 31, 2022. This amendment also includes transition guidance on the interest rate of the MLC receivable advances to be based on another industry standard benchmark rate that will be effective upon LIBOR’s scheduled retirement at the end of 2021. Please read Note 24—Subsequent Events for additional information.

During the remaining term of the Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement, MLC will make receivable advances to U.S. Oil based on an advance rate of 95% of eligible receivables, up to a total receivables advance maximum of $90.0 million (the “MLC receivable advances”), and additional advances based on crude oil and products inventories. Changes in the amount outstanding under the MLC receivable advances are included within Cash flows from financing activities on the consolidated statements of cash flows. The MLC receivable advances bear interest at a rate equal to three-month LIBOR plus 3.25% per annum. We also agreed to pay an availability fee equal to 1.50% of the unused capacity under the MLC receivable advances. As part of the November 1, 2019 amendment, the availability fee was amended to equal 0.75% of the unused capacity under the MLC receivable advances. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, our outstanding balance included in our Obligations under inventory financing agreements on our consolidated balance sheets under the MLC receivable advances was equal to our borrowing base of $41.1 million and $63.8 million, respectively. Additionally, as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had approximately $93.6 million and $127.2 million in letters of credit outstanding through MLC’s credit support, respectively.

The following table summarizes the inventory intermediation fees, which are included in Cost of revenues (excluding depreciation) on our consolidated statements of operations, and Interest expense and financing costs, net related to the intermediation agreements (in thousands):


	Year Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
Net fees and expenses:
Supply and Offtake Agreements
Inventory intermediation fees	$	12,034	$	35,459	$	21,470
Interest expense and financing costs, net	3,044		5,863		4,493
Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement
Inventory intermediation fees	$	4,112	$	3,734	$	—
Interest expense and financing costs, net	2,791		6,359		—

The Supply and Offtake Agreements and the Washington Refinery Intermediation Agreement also provide us with the ability to economically hedge price risk on our inventories and crude oil purchases. Please read Note 14—Derivatives for further information.