REVENUE

The following disclosures discuss the Partnership’s revised revenue recognition policies upon the adoption of ASU 2014-09 on January 1, 2018, as discussed in Note 1. These policies were applied to the current period only, and the amounts reflected in the Partnership’s consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2017 were recorded under the Partnership’s previous accounting policies.

Disaggregation of revenue

We operate our business in four operating segments, which are the same as our reportable segments, as follows:

•Investment in ETP;

•Investment in Sunoco LP;

•Investment in Lake Charles LNG; and

•Corporate and other.

Note 14 depicts the disaggregation of revenue by segment, with revenue amounts reflected in accordance with ASC Topic 606 for 2018 and ASC Topic 605 for 2017.

ETP’s intrastate transportation and storage revenue

ETP’s intrastate transportation and storage revenues are determined primarily by the volume of capacity ETP’s customers reserve as well as the actual volume of natural gas that flows through the transportation pipelines or that is injected or withdrawn into or out of ETP’s storage facilities. Firm transportation and storage contracts require customers to pay certain minimum fixed fees regardless of the volume of commodity they transport or store. These contracts typically include a variable incremental charge based on the actual volume of transportation commodity throughput or stored commodity injected/withdrawn. Under interruptible transportation and storage contracts, customers are not required to pay any fixed minimum amounts, but are instead billed based on actual volume of commodity they transport across ETP’s pipelines or inject/withdraw into or out of ETP’s storage facilities. Payment for services under these contracts are typically due the month after the services have been performed.

The performance obligation with respect to firm contracts is a promise to provide a single type of service (transportation or storage) daily over the life of the contract, which is fundamentally a “stand-ready” service. While there can be multiple activities required to be performed, these activities are not separable because such activities in combination are required to successfully transfer the overall service for which the customer has contracted. The fixed consideration of the transaction price is allocated ratably over the life of the contract and revenue for the fixed consideration is recognized over time, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit of this “stand-ready” service. Incremental fees associated with actual volume for each respective period are recognized as revenue in the period the incremental volume of service is performed.

The performance obligation with respect to interruptible contracts is also a promise to provide a single type of service, but such promise is made on a case-by-case basis at the time the customer requests the service and ETP accepts the customer’s request. Revenue is recognized for interruptible contracts at the time the services are performed.

ETP’s interstate transportation and storage revenue

ETP’s interstate transportation and storage revenues are determined primarily by the amount of capacity ETP’s customers reserve as well as the actual volume of natural gas that flows through the transportation pipelines or that is injected into or withdrawn out of ETP’s storage facilities. ETP’s interstate transportation and storage contracts can be firm or interruptible. Firm transportation and storage contracts require customers to pay certain minimum fixed fees regardless of the volume of commodity transported or stored. In exchange for such fees, ETP must stand ready to perform a contractually agreed-upon minimum volume of services whenever the customer requests such services. These contracts typically include a variable incremental charge based on the actual volume of transportation commodity throughput or stored commodity injected or withdrawn. Under interruptible transportation and storage contracts, customers are not required to pay any fixed minimum amounts, but are instead billed based on actual volume of commodity they transport across ETP’s pipelines or inject into or withdrawn out of ETP’s storage facilities. Consequently, ETP is not required to stand ready to provide any contractually agreed-upon volume of service, but instead provides the services based on existing capacity at the time the customer requests the services. Payment for services under these contracts are typically due the month after the services have been performed.

The performance obligation with respect to interruptible contracts is also a promise to provide a single type of services, but such promise is made on a case-by-case basis at the time the customer requests the service and ETP accepts the customer’s request. Revenue is recognized for interruptible contracts at the time the services are performed.

ETP’s midstream revenue

ETP’s midstream revenues are derived primarily from margins ETP earns for natural gas volumes that are gathered, processed, and/or transported for ETP’s customers. The various types of revenue contracts ETP’s midstream operations enter into include:

Fixed fee gathering and processing: Contracts under which ETP provides gathering and processing services in exchange for a fixed cash fee per unit of volume. Revenue for cash fees is recognized when the service is performed.

Keepwhole: Contracts under which ETP gathers raw natural gas from a third party producer, processes the gas to convert it to pipeline quality natural gas, and redeliver to the producer a thermal-equivalent amount of pipeline quality natural gas. In exchange for these services, ETP retains the NGLs extracted from the raw natural gas received from the producer as well as cash fees paid by the producer. The value of NGLs retained as well as cash fees is recognized as revenue when the services are performed.

Percent of Proceeds (“POP”): Contracts under which ETP provides gathering and processing services in exchange for a specified percentage of the producer’s commodity (“POP percentage”) and also in some cases additional cash fees. The two types of POP revenue contracts are described below:


•	In-Kind POP: ETP retains its POP percentage (non-cash consideration) and also any additional cash fees in exchange for providing the services. ETP recognizes revenue for the non-cash consideration and cash fees at the time the services are performed.

•

Mixed POP: ETP purchases NGLs from the producer and retains a portion of the residue gas as non-cash consideration for services provided. ETP may also receive cash fees for such services. Under Topic 606, these agreements were determined to be hybrid agreements which were partially supply agreements (for the NGL’s ETP purchased and customer agreements (for the services provided related to the product that was returned to the customer). Given that these are hybrid agreements, ETP split the cash and non-cash consideration between revenue and a reduction of costs based on the value of the service provided vs. the value of the supply received.

Payment for services under these contracts are typically due the month after the services have been performed.

The performance obligations with respect to ETP’s midstream contracts are to provide gathering, transportation and processing services, each of which would be completed on or about the same time, and each of which would be recognized on the same line item on the statement of operations; therefore, identification of separate performance obligations would not impact the timing or geography of revenue recognition.

Certain contracts of ETP’s midstream operations include throughput commitments under which customers commit to purchasing a certain minimum volume of service over a specified time period. If such volume of service is not purchased by the customer, deficiency fees are billed to the customer. In some cases, the customer is allowed to apply any deficiency fees paid to future purchases of services. In such cases, ETP defers revenue recognition until the customer uses the deficiency fees for services provided or becomes unable to use the fees as payment for future services due to expiration of the contractual period the fees can be applied or physical inability of the customer to utilize the fees due to capacity constraints.

ETP’s NGL and refined products transportation and services revenue

ETP’s NGL and refined products revenues are primarily derived from transportation, fractionation, blending, and storage of NGL and refined products as well as acquisition and marketing activities. Revenues are generated utilizing a complementary network of pipelines, storage and blending facilities, and strategic off-take locations that provide access to multiple NGL markets. Transportation, fractionation, and storage revenue is generated from fees charged to customers under a combination of firm and interruptible contracts. Firm contracts are in the form of take-or-pay arrangements where certain fees will be charged to customers regardless of the volume of service they request for any given period. Under interruptible contracts, customers are not required to pay any fixed minimum amounts, but are instead billed based on actual volume of service provided for any given period. Payment for services under these contracts are typically due the month after the services have been performed.

The performance obligation with respect to firm contracts is a promise to provide a single type of service (transportation, fractionation, blending, or storage) daily over the life of the contract, which is fundamentally a “stand-ready” service. While there can be multiple activities required to be performed, these activities are not separable because such activities in combination are required to successfully transfer the overall service for which the customer has contracted. The fixed consideration of the transaction price is allocated ratably over the life of the contract and revenue for the fixed consideration is recognized over time, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit of this “stand-ready” service. Incremental fees associated with actual volume for each respective period are recognized as revenue in the period the incremental volume of service is performed.

Acquisition and marketing contracts are in most cases short-term agreements involving purchase and/or sale of ETP’s NGL’s and other related hydrocarbons at market rates. These contracts were not affected by ASC 606.

ETP’s crude oil transportation and services revenue

ETP’s crude oil operations provide transportation, terminalling and acquisition and marketing services to crude oil markets throughout the southwest, midwest and northeastern United States. Crude oil transportation revenue is generated from tariffs paid by shippers utilizing ETP’s transportation services and is generally recognized as the related transportation services are provided. Crude oil terminalling revenue is generated from fees paid by customers for storage and other associated services at the terminal. Crude oil acquisition and marketing revenue is generated from sale of crude oil acquired from a variety of suppliers to third parties.

Certain transportation and terminalling agreements are considered to be firm agreements, because they include fixed fee components that are charged regardless of the volume of crude oil transported by the customer or services provided at the terminal. For these agreements, any fixed fees billed in excess of services provided are not recognized as revenue until the earlier of (i) the time at which the customer applies the fees against cost of service provided in a later period, or (ii) the customer becomes unable to apply the fees against cost of future service due to capacity constraints or contractual terms.

The performance obligation with respect to firm contracts is a promise to provide a single type of service (transportation or terminalling) daily over the life of the contract, which is fundamentally a “stand-ready” service. While there can be multiple activities required to be performed, these activities are not separable because such activities in combination are required to successfully transfer the overall service for which the customer has contracted. The fixed consideration of the transaction price is allocated ratably over the life of the contract and revenue for the fixed consideration is recognized over time, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit of this “stand-ready” service. Incremental fees associated with actual volume for each respective period are recognized as revenue in the period the incremental volume of service is performed.

The performance obligation with respect to interruptible contracts is also a promise to provide a single type of service, but such promise is made on a case-by-case basis at the time the customer requests the service and/or product and ETP accepts the customer’s request. Revenue is recognized for interruptible contracts at the time the services are performed.

Acquisition and marketing contracts are in most cases short-term agreements involving purchase and/or sale of ETP’s crude oil at market rates. These contracts were not affected by ASC 606.

ETP’s all other revenue

ETP’s other operations primarily include ETP’s compression business which provides compression services to customers engaged in the transportation of natural gas. It also includes the management of coal and natural resources properties and the related collection of royalties. ETP also earns revenues from other land management activities, such as selling standing timber, leasing coal-related infrastructure facilities, and collecting oil and gas royalties. These operations also include end-user coal handling facilities. There were no material changes to the manner in which revenues related to these operations are recorded under the new standard.

Sunoco LP’s wholesale revenue

Sunoco LP’s wholesale operations earn revenue from the following channels: sales to Dealers, sales to Distributors, Unbranded Wholesale Revenue, Commission Agent Revenue, Rental Income, and Other Income. Wholesale motor fuel revenue consists primarily of the sale of motor fuel under supply agreements with third party customers and affiliates. Fuel supply contracts with Sunoco LP’s wholesale customers generally provide that Sunoco LP distribute motor fuel at a formula price based on published rates, volume-based profit margin, and other terms specific to the agreement. The customer is invoiced the agreed-upon price with most payment terms ranging less than 30 days. If the consideration promised in a contract includes a variable amount, Sunoco LP estimates the variable consideration amount and factors in such an estimate to determine the transaction price under the expected value method.

Revenue is recognized under the wholesale motor fuel contracts at the point in time the customer takes control of the fuel. At the time control is transferred to the customer the sale is considered final, because the agreements do not grant customers the right to return motor fuel. Under the new standard, to determine when control transfers to the customer, the shipping terms of the contract are assessed as shipping terms are considered a primary indicator of the transfer of control. For FOB shipping point terms, revenue is recognized at the time of shipment. The performance obligation with respect to the sale of goods is satisfied at the time of shipment since the customer gains control at this time under the terms. Shipping and/or handling costs that occur before the customer obtains control of the goods are deemed to be fulfillment activities and are accounted for as fulfillment costs. Once the goods are shipped, Sunoco LP is precluded from redirecting the shipment to another customer and revenue is recognized.

Commission agent revenue consists of sales from consignment agreements between Sunoco LP and select operators. Sunoco LP supplies motor fuel to sites operated by commission agents and sells the fuel directly to the end customer. In consignment arrangements, control of the product is transferred at the point in time when the goods are removed from consignment stock and sold to the end customer. To reflect the transfer of control, Sunoco LP recognizes consignment revenue at the point in time fuel is sold to the end customer.

Sunoco LP’s retail revenue

Sunoco LP’s retail operations earn revenue from the following channels: Retail Motor Fuel Sales, Merchandise Sales, and Other Income. Retail Motor Fuel Sales consist of fuel sales to consumers at company-operated retail convenience stores. Merchandise Revenue comprises the in-store merchandise and foodservice sales at company-operated convenience stores. Other Income represents a variety of other services within Sunoco LP’s retail operations including car washes, lottery, automated teller machines, money orders, prepaid phone cards and wireless services. Revenue from retail operations is recognized when (or as) the performance obligations are satisfied (i.e. when the customer obtains control of the good).

Lake Charles LNG revenue

Our Lake Charles segment revenues are primarily derived from terminalling services for shippers by receiving LNG at the facility for storage and delivering such LNG to shippers, either in liquid state or gaseous state after regasification. Lake Charles LNG derives all of its revenue from a series of long term contracts with a wholly-owned subsidiary of BG Group plc (“BG”). Terminalling revenue is generated from fees paid by BG for storage and other associated services at the terminal. Payment for services under these contracts are typically due the month after the services have been performed.

The terminalling agreements are considered to be firm agreements, because they include fixed fee components that are charged regardless of the volumes transported by BG or services provided at the terminal.

The performance obligation with respect to firm contracts is a promise to provide a single type of service (terminalling) daily over the life of the contract, which is fundamentally a “stand-ready” service. While there can be multiple activities required to be performed, these activities are not separable because such activities in combination are required to successfully transfer the overall service for which the customer has contracted. The fixed consideration of the transaction price is allocated ratably over the life of the contract and revenue for the fixed consideration is recognized over time, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefit of this “stand-ready” service. Incremental fees associated with actual volume for each respective period are recognized as revenue in the period the incremental volume of service is performed.

Contract Balances with Customers

The Partnership satisfies its obligations by transferring goods or services in exchange for consideration from customers. The timing of performance may differ from the timing the associated consideration is paid to or received from the customer, thus resulting in the recognition of a contract asset or a contract liability.

The Partnership recognizes a contract asset when making upfront consideration payments to certain customers or when providing services to customers prior to the time at which the Partnership is contractually allowed to bill for such services.

The Partnership recognizes a contract liability if the customer's payment of consideration precedes the Partnership’s fulfillment of the performance obligations. Certain contracts contain provisions requiring customers to pay a fixed fee for a right to use our assets, but allows customers to apply such fees against services to be provided at a future point in time. These amounts are reflected as deferred revenue until the customer applies the deficiency fees to services provided or becomes unable to use the fees as payment for future services due to expiration of the contractual period the fees can be applied or physical inability of the customer to utilize the fees due to capacity constraints. Additionally, Sunoco LP maintains some franchise agreements requiring dealers to make one-time upfront payments for long term license agreements. The Partnership recognizes a contract liability when the upfront payment is received and recognizes revenue over the term of the license. As of March 31, 2018, the Partnership had $317 million in deferred revenues representing the current value of our future performance obligations.

The balances of receivables from contracts with customers listed in the table below include both current trade receivables and long-term receivables, net of allowance for doubtful accounts. The allowance for receivables represents Sunoco LP’s best estimate of the probable losses associated with potential customer defaults. Sunoco LP determines the allowance based on historical experience and on a specific identification basis.

The opening and closing balances of Sunoco LP’s contract assets and contract liabilities are as follows:



	Balance at January 1, 2018		Balance at March 31, 2018		Increase/ (Decrease)
Contract Balances
Contract Asset	$	51	$	55	$	4
Accounts receivable from contracts with customers	445		393		(52		)
Contract Liability	1		1		—

The amount of revenue recognized in the current period that was included in the deferred revenue liability balance was $42 million.

Performance Obligations

At contract inception, the Partnership assesses the goods and services promised in its contracts with customers and identifies a performance obligation for each promise to transfer a good or service (or bundle of goods or services) that is distinct. To identify the performance obligations, the Partnership considers all the goods or services promised in the contract, whether explicitly stated or implied based on customary business practices. For a contract that has more than one performance obligation, the Partnership allocates the total contract consideration it expects to be entitled to, to each distinct performance obligation based on a standalone-selling price basis. Revenue is recognized when (or as) the performance obligations are satisfied, that is, when the customer obtains control of the good or service. Certain of our contracts contain variable components, which, when combined with the fixed component are considered a single performance obligation. For these types of contacts, only the fixed component of the contracts are included in the table below.

Sunoco LP distributes fuel under long-term contracts to branded distributors, branded and unbranded third party dealers, and branded and unbranded retail fuel outlets. Sunoco LP branded supply contracts with distributors generally have both time and volume commitments that establish contract duration. These contracts have an initial term of approximately nine years, with an estimated, volume-weighted term remaining of approximately four years.

As part of the asset purchase agreement with 7-Eleven, Sunoco LP and 7-Eleven and SEI Fuel (collectively, the “Distributor”) have entered into a 15-year take-or-pay fuel supply agreement in which the Distributor is required to purchase a minimum volume of fuel annually. Sunoco LP expects to recognize this revenue in accordance with the contract as Sunoco LP transfers control of the product to the customer. However, in case of annual shortfall Sunoco LP will recognize the amount payable by the Distributor ratably over the remaining period associated with the shortfall. The transaction price of the contract is variable in nature, fluctuating based on market conditions. The Partnership has elected to take the practical expedient not to estimate the amount of variable consideration allocated to wholly unsatisfied performance obligations.

In some contractual arrangements, Sunoco LP grants dealers a franchise license to operate Sunoco LP’s convenience stores over the life of a franchise agreement. In return for the grant of the convenience store license, the dealer makes a one-time nonrefundable franchise fee payment to Sunoco LP plus sales based royalties payable to Sunoco LP at a contractual rate during the period of the franchise agreement. Under the requirements of ASC Topic 606, the franchise license is deemed to be a symbolic license for which recognition of revenue over time is the most appropriate measure of progress toward complete satisfaction of the performance obligation. Revenue from this symbolic license is recognized evenly over the license period.

As of March 31, 2018, the aggregate amount of transaction price allocated to unsatisfied (or partially satisfied) performance obligations is $37.3 billion and the Partnership expects to recognize this amount as revenue within the time bands illustrated below:



	2018 (remainder)		2019		2020		Thereafter		Total
Revenue expected to be recognized on contracts with customers existing as of March 31, 2018	$	3,574	$	4,788	$	4,244	$	24,707	$	37,313

Costs to Obtain or Fulfill a Contract

Sunoco LP recognizes an asset from the costs incurred to obtain a contract (e.g. sales commissions) only if it expects to recover those costs. On the other hand, the costs to fulfill a contract are capitalized if the costs are specifically identifiable to a contract, would result in enhancing resources that will be used in satisfying performance obligations in future and are expected to be recovered. These capitalized costs are recorded as a part of Other Assets and are amortized on a systematic basis consistent with the pattern of transfer of the goods or services to which such costs relate. The amount of amortization expense that the Partnership recognized for the period ended March 31, 2018 was $3 million. Sunoco LP has also made a policy election of expensing the costs to obtain a contract, as and when they are incurred, in cases where the expected amortization period is one year or less.

Practical Expedients Utilized by the Partnership

For the period ended March 31, 2018, the Partnership elected the following practical expedients in accordance with Topic 606:

•

Right to invoice: The Partnership elected to utilize an output method to recognize revenue that is based on the amount to which the Partnership has a right to invoice a customer for services performed to date, if that amount corresponds directly with the value provided to the customer for the related performance or its obligation completed to date. As such, the Partnership recognized revenue in the amount to which it had the right to invoice customers.


•	Significant financing component: The Partnership elected not to adjust the promised amount of consideration for the effects of significant financing component if the Partnership expects, at contract inception, that the period between the transfer of a promised good or service to a customer and when the customer pays for that good or service will be one year or less.


•	Unearned variable consideration: The Partnership elected to only disclose the unearned fixed consideration associated with unsatisfied performance obligations related to our various customer contracts which contain both fixed and variable components.

•

Incremental costs of obtaining a contract: The Partnership generally expenses sales commissions when incurred because the amortization period would have been less than one year. We record these costs within general and administrative expenses. The Partnership elected to expense the incremental costs of obtaining a contract when the amortization period for such contracts would have been one year or less.


•	Shipping and handling costs: The Partnership elected to account for shipping and handling activities that occur after the customer has obtained control of a good as fulfillment activities (i.e., an expense) rather than as a promised service.


•	Measurement of transaction price: The Partnership has elected to exclude from the measurement of transaction price all taxes assessed by a governmental authority that are both imposed on and concurrent with a specific revenue-producing transaction and collected by the Partnership from a customer, for e.g. sales tax, value added tax etc.


•	Variable consideration of wholly unsatisfied performance obligations: The Partnership has elected to exclude the estimate of variable consideration to the allocation of wholly unsatisfied performance obligations.