Property, Plant and Equipment

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

6. PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

A summary of the historical cost of property, plant and equipment is as follows:



thousands	Estimated Useful Life	September 30, 2013		December 31, 2012
Land	n/a	$	2,584	$	501
Gathering systems	3 to 47 years	3,610,879		2,911,572
Pipelines and equipment	15 to 45 years	119,278		91,126
Assets under construction	n/a	318,107		422,002
Other	3 to 25 years	10,541		7,191
Total property, plant and equipment		4,061,389		3,432,392
Accumulated depreciation		817,489		714,436
Net property, plant and equipment		$	3,243,900	$	2,717,956

The cost of property classified as “Assets under construction” is excluded from capitalized costs being depreciated. These amounts represent property that is not yet suitable to be placed into productive service as of the respective balance sheet date. See Note 7.

During the second quarter of 2013, WES recognized a $1.0 million impairment primarily related to the cancellation of various capital projects by the third-party operator of the Non-Operated Marcellus Interest.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets used in the normal conduct of business and not intended for resale. Includes, but is not limited to, accounting policies and methodology, roll forwards, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, including composite depreciation, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, useful lives and method used, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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