Partners' Capital and Distributions

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2017

Partners’ Capital and Distributions

Partners’ Capital

In May 2017, we filed a prospectus supplement to the shelf registration statement for our continuous equity offering program (which we refer to as an at-the-market program, or “ATM”) pursuant to which we may issue up to $750.0 million of common units in amounts, at prices and on terms to be determined by market conditions at the time. The net proceeds from any sales under the ATM, after deducting the sales agents’ commissions and our offering expenses, will be used for general partnership purposes, including repayment of indebtedness or capital expenditures. No units were issued pursuant to this program during the current period.

The following table details the changes in the number of our limited partner units outstanding from January 1, 2017 through June 30, 2017:



Limited partner units outstanding on January 1, 2017		227,783,916
January 2017–Settlement of 2014 awards^(a)		216,679
During 2017–Other^(b)		23,961
Limited partner units outstanding on June 30, 2017		228,024,556

(a) Limited partner units issued to settle long-term incentive plan awards to certain employees that vested on December 31, 2016.

(b) Limited partner units issued to settle the equity-based retainers paid to certain independent directors of our general partner and the final payment of deferred director compensation to a former director.

Distributions

Distributions we paid during 2016 and 2017 were as follows (in thousands, except per unit amounts):



Payment Date	Per Unit Cash Distribution Amount			Total Cash Distribution to Limited Partners
02/12/2016		$	0.7850		$	178,808
05/13/2016		0.8025			182,797
Through 06/30/2016		1.5875			361,605
08/12/2016		0.8200			186,783
11/14/2016		0.8375			190,769
Total		$	3.2450		$	739,157

02/14/2017		$	0.8550		$	194,961
05/15/2017		0.8725			198,951
Through 06/30/2017		1.7275			393,912
08/14/2017^(a)		0.8900			202,942
Total		$	2.6175		$	596,854

(a) Our general partner’s board of directors declared this cash distribution in July 2017 to be paid on August 14, 2017 to unitholders of record at the close of business on July 31, 2017.