Property, Plant and Equipment (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment and Accumulated Depreciation

The historical costs of our property, plant and equipment and related accumulated depreciation balances were as follows at the dates indicated:

	Estimated Useful Life in Years	March 31, 2015		December 31,  2014
Plants, pipelines and facilities (1)	3-45 (6)	$	31,153.8	$	30,834.9
Underground and other storage facilities (2)	5-40 (7)		2,609.3		2,584.2
Platforms and facilities (3)	20-31		659.7		659.7
Transportation equipment (4)	3-10		158.7		154.2
Marine vessels (5)	15-30		803.1		796.4
Land			260.9		262.6
Construction in progress			3,196.6		2,754.7
Total			38,842.1		38,046.7
Less accumulated depreciation			8,474.5		8,165.1
Property, plant and equipment, net		$	30,367.6	$	29,881.6
(1)     Plants, pipelines and facilities include processing plants; NGL, natural gas, crude oil and petrochemical and refined products pipelines; terminal loading and unloading facilities; office furniture and equipment; buildings; laboratory and shop equipment and related assets.
(2)     Underground and other storage facilities include underground product storage caverns; above ground storage tanks; water wells and related assets.
(3)     Platforms and facilities include offshore platforms and related facilities and other associated assets located in the Gulf of Mexico.
(4)     Transportation equipment includes tractor-trailer tank trucks and other vehicles and similar assets used in our operations.
(5)     Marine vessels include tow boats, barges and related equipment used in our marine transportation business.
(6)     In general, the estimated useful lives of major assets within this category are: processing plants, 20-35 years; pipelines and related equipment, 5-45 years; terminal facilities, 10-35 years; office furniture and equipment, 3-20 years; buildings, 20-40 years; and laboratory and shop equipment, 5-35 years.
(7)     In general, the estimated useful lives of assets within this category are: underground storage facilities, 5-35 years; storage tanks, 10-40 years; and water wells, 5-35 years.

Depreciation Expense and Capitalized Interest

The following table summarizes our depreciation expense and capitalized interest amounts for the periods indicated:

	For the Three Months Ended March 31,
	2015		2014
Depreciation expense (1)	$	291.3	$	267.9
Capitalized interest (2)		29.6		18.5
(1)    Depreciation expense is a component of “Costs and expenses” as presented on our Unaudited Condensed Statements of Consolidated Operations.
(2)    We capitalize interest costs incurred on funds used to construct property, plant and equipment while the asset is in its construction phase. The capitalized interest is recorded as part of the asset to which it relates and is amortized over the asset’s estimated useful life as a component of depreciation expense. When capitalized interest is recorded, it reduces interest expense from what it would be otherwise.

AROs

The following table presents information regarding our asset retirement obligations (“AROs”) since December 31, 2014:

ARO liability balance, December 31, 2014	$	98.3
Liabilities incurred		--
Liabilities settled		(3.3	)
Revisions in estimated cash flows		11.0
Accretion expense		1.6
ARO liability balance, March 31, 2015	$	107.6

Forecasted Accretion Expense Associated with AROs

The following table presents our forecast of accretion expense for the periods indicated:

Remainder of 2015		2016		2017		2018		2019
$	4.7	$	6.4	$	6.8	$	7.3	$	7.9