Organization And Description Of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization And Description Of Business

Organization and Description of Business

Organization

Unless indicated otherwise, the terms “our,” “we,” “us” and similar language refer to Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. together with its subsidiaries. We are a Delaware limited partnership and our limited partner units trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “MMP.” Magellan GP, LLC, a wholly owned Delaware limited liability company, serves as our general partner.

Description of Business

We are principally engaged in the transportation, storage and distribution of refined petroleum products and crude oil. As of December 31, 2015, our asset portfolio, including the assets of our joint ventures, consisted of:

• our refined products segment, comprised of our 9,500 mile refined products pipeline system with 52 terminals as well as 28 independent terminals not connected to our pipeline system and our 1,100-mile ammonia pipeline system;

• our crude oil segment, comprised of approximately 1,700 miles of crude oil pipelines and storage facilities with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 22 million barrels, of which 14 million are used for leased storage; and

• our marine storage segment, consisting of five marine terminals located along coastal waterways with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 26 million barrels.

Description of Products

Terminology common in our industry includes the following terms, which describe products that we transport, store and distribute through our pipelines and terminals:

• refined products are the output from refineries and are primarily used as fuels by consumers. Refined products include gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, kerosene and heating oil.  Collectively, diesel fuel and heating oil are referred to as distillates;

• liquefied petroleum gases, or LPGs, are produced as by-products of the crude oil refining process and in connection with natural gas production. LPGs include butane and propane;

• blendstocks are blended with refined products to change or enhance their characteristics such as increasing a gasoline's octane or oxygen content. Blendstocks include alkylates, oxygenates and natural gasoline;

• heavy oils and feedstocks are used as burner fuels or feedstocks for further processing by refineries and petrochemical facilities. Heavy oils and feedstocks include No. 6 fuel oil and vacuum gas oil;

• crude oil and condensate are used as feedstocks by refineries and petrochemical facilities;

• biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are increasingly required by government mandates; and

• ammonia is primarily used as a nitrogen fertilizer.

Except for ammonia, we use the term petroleum products to describe any, or a combination, of the above-noted products.