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EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS AND LONG-TERM INCENTIVE PLANS | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2015
Employee Benefits and Share-based Compensation [Abstract] |
Employee Benefit Plans and Long-Term Incentive Plans | EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS AND LONG-TERM INCENTIVE PLANS Employee Benefit Plans We rely on employees of NuStar GP, LLC to provide the necessary services to conduct our U.S. operations. NuStar GP, LLC sponsors various employee benefit plans. The NuStar Pension Plan (the Pension Plan) is a qualified non-contributory defined benefit pension plan that provides eligible employees with retirement income as calculated under a cash balance formula. Under the cash balance formula, benefits are based on age, service and interest credits, and employees become fully vested in their benefits upon attaining three years of vesting service. Prior to January 1, 2014, eligible employees were covered under either a cash balance formula or a final average pay formula (FAP). Effective January 1, 2014, the Pension Plan was amended to freeze the FAP benefits as of December 31, 2013, and going forward, all eligible employees are covered under the cash balance formula discussed above. NuStar GP, LLC also maintains an excess pension plan (the Excess Pension Plan) which is a nonqualified deferred compensation plan that provides benefits to a select group of management or other highly compensated employees of NuStar GP, LLC. The supplemental executive retirement plan has no participants following final payouts in 2014. The NuStar Thrift Plan (the Thrift Plan) is a qualified defined contribution plan that became effective June 26, 2006. Participation in the Thrift Plan is voluntary and is open to substantially all NuStar GP, LLC employees upon their date of hire. Thrift Plan participants can contribute from 1% up to 30% of their total annual compensation to the Thrift Plan in the form of pre-tax and/or after tax employee contributions. NuStar GP, LLC makes matching contributions in an amount equal to 100% of each participant’s employee contributions up to a maximum of 6% of the participant’s total annual compensation. NuStar GP, LLC also maintains an excess thrift plan (the Excess Thrift Plan) that became effective July 1, 2006. The Excess Thrift Plan is a nonqualified deferred compensation plan that provides benefits to those employees of NuStar GP, LLC whose compensation and/or annual contributions under the Thrift Plan are subject to the limitations applicable to qualified retirement plans under the Code. Neither the Excess Thrift Plan nor the Excess Pension Plan is intended to constitute either a qualified plan under the provisions of Section 401 of the Code or a funded plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. NuStar GP, LLC also sponsors a contributory medical benefits plan for employees that retired prior to April 1, 2014. For employees that retire on or after April 1, 2014, NuStar GP, LLC provides partial reimbursement for eligible third-party health care premiums. We also maintain several other defined contribution plans for certain international employees located in Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, our costs for these plans totaled $2.6 million, $2.7 million and $2.5 million, respectively. Long-Term Incentive Plans As of December 31, 2015, NuStar GP, LLC sponsored the following:
• | The Fourth Amended and Restated 2000 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the 2000 LTIP), under which NuStar GP, LLC may award up to 3,250,000 NS common units. Awards under the 2000 LTIP can include NS unit options, restricted units, performance awards, distribution equivalent rights (DER) and contractual rights to receive common units. As of December 31, 2015, NS common units that remained available to be awarded totaled 1,260,634 under the 2000 LTIP.
• | The 2006 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the 2006 LTIP) under which NuStar GP Holdings may award up to 2,000,000 NSH units to employees, consultants and directors of NuStar GP Holdings and its affiliates, including us. Awards under the 2006 LTIP can include NSH unit options, performance awards, DER, restricted units, phantom units, unit grants and unit appreciation rights. As of December 31, 2015, a total of 1,492,327 NSH units remained available to be awarded under the 2006 LTIP.
The 2003 Employee Unit Incentive Plan (the UIP), under which NuStar GP, LLC awarded NS common units to employees of NuStar GP, LLC or its affiliates, terminated on June 16, 2013. The number of awards granted under the above-noted plans were as follows:
|  |  |  | Year Ended December 31,
|  | Vesting |  | 2015 |  | 2014 |  | 2013
2000 LTIP: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Performance awards |  | (a) |  | 29,633 |  |  | 28,841 |  |  | 38,786 |
Restricted units (b) |  | 1/5 per year |  | 250,563 |  |  | 208,714 |  |  | 269,182 |
Restricted units (grants to non-employee directors of NuStar GP, LLC) |  | 1/3 per year |  | 7,553 |  |  | 7,009 |  |  | 8,904 |
2006 LTIP: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Restricted units |  | 1/5 per year |  | 26,240 |  |  | 16,895 |  |  | 18,620 |
Restricted units (grants to non-employee directors of NuStar GP Holdings) (c) |  | 1/3 per year |  | 12,814 |  |  | 8,911 |  |  | 13,183 |
(a) | Performance awards vest 1/3 per year if certain performance measures are met, as defined in the award terms.
(b) | The 2000 LTIP restricted unit grants include 2,835, 2,844 and 3,882 restricted unit awards granted to certain international employees for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 respectively, that vest 1/3 per year, as defined in the award terms.
(c) | We do not reimburse NuStar GP, LLC for compensation expense relating to these awards.
Our share of compensation expense related to the benefit plans and long-term incentive plans sponsored by NuStar GP, LLC described above is as follows:
| Year Ended December 31,
| 2015 |  | 2014 |  | 2013
| (Thousands of Dollars)
Benefit plans | $ | 13,215 |  |  | $ | 11,385 |  |  | $ | 27,741 |
Long-term incentive plans | $ | 6,397 |  |  | $ | 10,934 |  |  | $ | 7,369 |
Please refer to Note 28 for a discussion of the employee transfer from NuStar GP, LLC.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for an entity's employee compensation and benefit plans, including, but not limited to, postemployment and postretirement benefit plans, defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans, non-qualified and supplemental benefit plans, deferred compensation, share-based compensation, life insurance, severance, health care, unemployment and other benefit plans. + References No definition available. + Details
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