Related Party Transactions

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transactions

Note 14.  Related Party Transactions

The following table summarizes our related party transactions for the periods indicated:

	For the Three Months Ended March 31,
	2024		2023
Revenues – related parties:
Unconsolidated affiliates	$	15	$	13
Costs and expenses – related parties:
EPCO and its privately held affiliates	$	381	$	310
Unconsolidated affiliates		46		49
Total	$	427	$	359

The following table summarizes our related party accounts receivable and accounts payable balances at the dates indicated:

	March 31, 2024		December 31, 2023
Accounts receivable - related parties:
Unconsolidated affiliates	$	6	$	7
Accounts payable - related parties:
EPCO and its privately held affiliates	$	66	$	183
Unconsolidated affiliates		16		16
Total	$	82	$	199

We believe that the terms and provisions of our related party agreements are fair to us; however, such agreements and transactions may not be as favorable to us as we could have obtained from unaffiliated third parties.

Relationship with EPCO and Affiliates

We have an extensive and ongoing relationship with EPCO and its privately held affiliates (including Enterprise GP, our general partner), which are not a part of our consolidated group of companies.  

At March 31, 2024, EPCO and its privately held affiliates (including Dan Duncan LLC and certain Duncan family trusts) beneficially owned the following limited partner interests in us:

Total Number of Limited Partner Interests Held	Percentage of Common Units Outstanding
702,464,679 common units	32.3%

Of the total number of Partnership common units held by EPCO and its privately held affiliates, 62,976,464 have been pledged as security under the separate credit facilities of EPCO and its privately held affiliates at March 31, 2024.  These credit facilities contain customary and other events of default, including defaults by us and other affiliates of EPCO.  An event of default, followed by a foreclosure on the pledged collateral, could ultimately result in a change in ownership of these units and affect the market price of the Partnership’s common units.

The Partnership and Enterprise GP are both separate legal entities apart from each other and apart from EPCO and its other affiliates, with assets and liabilities that are also separate from those of EPCO and its other affiliates.  EPCO and its privately held affiliates use cash on hand and cash distributions they receive from us and other investments to fund their other activities and to meet their respective debt obligations, if any.  During the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, we paid EPCO and its privately held affiliates cash distributions totaling $350 million and $333 million, respectively.

We have no employees.  All of our administrative and operating functions are provided either by employees of EPCO (pursuant to the ASA) or by other service providers.  We and our general partner are parties to the ASA.  The following table presents our related party costs and expenses attributable to the ASA with EPCO for the periods indicated:

	For the Three Months Ended March 31,
	2024		2023
Operating costs and expenses	$	334	$	273
General and administrative expenses		41		31
Total costs and expenses	$	375	$	304

We lease office space from privately held affiliates of EPCO at rental rates that approximate market rates.  For each of the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, we recognized $3 million of related party operating lease expense in connection with these office space leases.