Long-Term Incentive Plan

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

Long-Term Incentive Plan

Long-Term Incentive Plan

The compensation committee of our general partner’s board of directors administers our long-term incentive plan (“LTIP”) covering certain of our employees and the independent directors of our general partner. The LTIP primarily consists of phantom units and permits the grant of awards covering an aggregate payout of 11.9 million of our common units. The estimated units remaining available under the LTIP at September 30, 2020 total 1.0 million.

Equity-based incentive compensation expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2020, primarily recorded as G&A expense on our consolidated statements of income, was as follows (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2019		2020		2019		2020
Performance-based awards	$	5,162	$	(1,121)	$	18,123	$	(1,247)
Time-based awards	1,611		2,290		4,454		6,827
Total	$	6,773	$	1,169	$	22,577	$	5,580

During 2020, we reduced our LTIP accruals related to performance awards vesting in 2020 and 2021 to reflect the estimated impacts of COVID-19 related reductions in economic activity and the significant decline in commodity prices.

On January 31, 2020, 378,144 unit awards were granted pursuant to our LTIP. These awards included both performance-based and time-based awards and have a three-year vesting period that will end on December 31, 2022.

Basic and Diluted Net Income Per Common Unit

The difference between our actual common units outstanding and our weighted-average number of common units outstanding used to calculate basic net income per unit is due to the impact of: (i) the unit awards issued to non-employee directors and (ii) the weighted average effect of units actually issued or repurchased during a period.  The difference between the weighted-average number of common units outstanding used for basic and diluted net income per unit calculations on our consolidated statements of income is primarily due to the dilutive effect of unit awards associated with our LTIP that have not yet vested.