REVENUES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

REVENUES

REVENUES

Disaggregation of Revenues

For the year ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, effectively all of the Partnership’s revenues were from capacity arrangements and transportation contracts with customers as discussed under Note 2 - Significant Accounting Policies.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Bison received an unsolicited offer from Tenaska Marketing Ventures (Tenaska) regarding the termination of its contract. Also, during 2018, through a Permanent Capacity Release Agreement, Tenaska assumed Anadarko Energy Services Company’s (Anadarko) ship-or-pay contract obligation on Bison, which was the largest contract on Bison. Bison and Tenaska mutually agreed to terms which included a non-refundable payment to Bison of $95.4 million in December 2018 in exchange for the termination of all its contract obligations with Bison. Following the amendment of its tariff to enable this transaction, another customer executed a similar agreement to terminate its contract on Bison in exchange for a non-refundable payment to Bison of approximately $2.0 million in December 2018. At the termination of the contracts, Bison was released from performing any future services with the two customers and as such, the amounts received were recorded in revenue in 2018. Accordingly, the $97 million we received from contract terminations was considered as revenue from capacity and transportation contracts with customers and therefore no further disaggregation of revenue is needed (See also related discussion under Note 7 - Plant Property and Equipment).

As noted under Note 2 - Significant Accounting Policies, a portion of our revenues collected may be subject to refund when a rate proceeding is ongoing or as part of a rate case settlement with customers. We use our best estimate based on the facts and circumstances of the proceeding to provide for allowances for these potential refunds in the revenue we recognized. Accordingly, as part of the 2018 GTN Settlement, in 2018, we issued a $10 million refund that was allocated amongst GTN's firm customers. The refund was recognized as an offset against revenue in the income statement for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Contract Balances

All of the Partnership’s contract balances pertain to receivables from contracts with customers amounting to $36 million at December 31, 2020 (December 31, 2019 - $37 million) and are recorded as Trade accounts receivable and reported as “Accounts receivable and other” in the Partnership’s consolidated balance sheet (Refer to Note 20).

Additionally, our accounts receivable represents the Partnership’s unconditional right to consideration for services completed which includes billed and unbilled accounts.

Right to invoice practical expedient

In the application of the right to invoice practical expedient, the Partnership’s revenues from regulated capacity arrangements are recognized based on rates specified in the contract. Therefore, the amount invoiced, which includes the capacity contracted and variable volume of natural gas transported, corresponds directly to the value the customer received. These revenues are recognized on a monthly basis once the Partnership’s performance obligation to provide capacity has been satisfied.