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Incentive Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

15. Incentive

Plans

GP Natural Resource Partners LLC adopted the Natural Resource Partners Long-Term Incentive Plan (the “Long-Term Incentive Plan”) for directors of GP Natural Resource Partners LLC and employees of its affiliates who perform services for the Partnership. The compensation committee of GP Natural Resource Partners LLC’s board of directors administers the Long-Term Incentive Plan. Subject to the rules of the exchange upon which the common units are listed at the time, the board of directors and the compensation committee of the board of directors have the right to alter or amend the Long-Term Incentive Plan or any part of the Long-Term Incentive Plan from time to time. Except upon the occurrence of unusual or nonrecurring events, no change in any outstanding grant may be made that would materially reduce the benefit intended to be made available to a participant without the consent of the participant.

Under the plan a grantee will receive the market value of a common unit in cash upon vesting. Market value is defined as the average closing price over the 20 trading days prior to the vesting date. The compensation committee may make grants under the Long-Term Incentive Plan to employees and directors containing such terms as it determines, including the vesting period. Outstanding grants vest upon a change in control of the Partnership, the general partner, or GP Natural Resource Partners LLC. If a grantee’s employment or membership on the board of directors terminates for any reason, outstanding grants will be automatically forfeited unless and to the extent the compensation committee provides otherwise.

A summary of activity in the outstanding grants for the year ended December 31, 2011 are as follows:


Outstanding grants at the beginning of the period	753,868
Grants during the period	279,078
Grants vested and paid during the period	(162,186	)
Forfeitures during the period	(416	)

Outstanding grants at the end of the period	870,344

Grants typically vest at the end of a four-year period and are paid in cash upon vesting. The liability fluctuates with the market value of the Partnership units and because of changes in estimated fair value determined each quarter using the Black-Scholes option valuation model. Risk free interest rates and historical volatility are reset at each calculation based on current rates corresponding to the remaining vesting term for each outstanding grant and ranged from 0.13% to 0.37% and 35.66% to 40.14%, respectively at December 31, 2011. The Partnership’s annual dividend rate of 6.61% was used in the calculation at December 31, 2011. The Partnership accrued expenses related to its plans to be reimbursed to its general partner of $7.4 million, $9.0 million and $7.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. In connection with the Long-Term Incentive Plans, cash payments of $5.7 million, $3.2 million and $2.9 million were paid during each of the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively. The grant date fair value was $42.93, $29.42 and $31.01 per unit for awards in 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.

In connection with the phantom unit awards granted since February 2008, the CNG committee also granted tandem Distribution Equivalent Rights, or DERs, which entitle the holders to receive distributions equal to the distributions paid on the Partnership’s common units. The DERs are payable in cash upon vesting but may be subject to forfeiture if the grantee ceases employment prior to vesting.

The unaccrued cost, associated with unvested outstanding grants and related DERs at December 31, 2011, was $11.1 million.