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ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Organization and Operations
NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS) is a publicly held Delaware limited partnership engaged in the transportation of petroleum products and anhydrous ammonia, and the terminalling, storage and marketing of petroleum products. Unless otherwise indicated, the terms “NuStar Energy,” “NS,” “the Partnership,” “we,” “our” and “us” are used in this report to refer to NuStar Energy L.P., to one or more of our consolidated subsidiaries or to all of them taken as a whole. Our business is managed under the direction of the board of directors of NuStar GP, LLC, the general partner of our general partner, Riverwalk Logistics, L.P., both of which are indirectly wholly owned subsidiaries of ours.

We conduct our operations through our subsidiaries, primarily NuStar Logistics, L.P. (NuStar Logistics) and NuStar Pipeline Operating Partnership L.P. (NuPOP). We have three business segments: pipeline, storage and fuels marketing.

Recent Developments
COVID-19 and OPEC+ Actions. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus, or COVID-19, a pandemic as the illness spread across the globe. COVID-19 has had a severe impact on global economic activity, as government authorities have instituted stay-home orders and other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and billions of people around the world have ceased their usual day-to-day activities. The scale of this decrease has significantly reduced demand for petroleum products. In March, the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and demand deterioration was exacerbated by disputes among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producing nations
(OPEC+) regarding their agreed production rates that contributed to a significant over-supply in crude, resulting in a sharp decline in, and increase in the volatility of, crude oil prices.
 
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with actions by OPEC+, led to a decline in our unit price and market capitalization, and we recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $225.0 million associated with our crude oil pipelines in the first quarter of 2020. Please refer to Note 3 for additional information.

Selby Terminal Fire. On October 15, 2019, our terminal facility in Selby, California experienced a fire that destroyed two storage tanks and temporarily shut down the terminal. The property damage was isolated, and in the fourth quarter of 2019, we incurred losses of $5.4 million, which represent the aggregate amount of our deductibles under various insurance policies. We received insurance proceeds of $11.9 million in the first quarter of 2020 and $13.1 million in April 2020. Gains from business interruption insurance of $3.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 are included in “Operating expenses” in the condensed consolidated statement of comprehensive loss. Insurance proceeds relate to cleanup costs and business interruption and are therefore included in “Cash flows from operating activities” in the consolidated statement of cash flows. We believe we have adequate insurance to offset additional costs in excess of the insurance deductibles.

Basis of Presentation
These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Partnership and subsidiaries in which the Partnership has a controlling interest. Inter-partnership balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for interim financial information and with the instructions to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included, and all disclosures are adequate. All such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature unless disclosed otherwise. Operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2020. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

We have reclassified certain previously reported amounts in the consolidated financial statements and notes to conform to current-period presentation. In the second quarter of 2019, we determined the St. Eustatius terminal and bunkering operations sold on July 29, 2019 met the requirements to be reported as discontinued operations, and as a result, we reclassified certain revenues and expenses to discontinued operations for all applicable periods presented, as further discussed in Note 3.