Description of Business and Presentation of Financial Statements	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description Of Business And Presentation Of Financial Statements	Description of Business and Presentation of Financial Statements References herein to HollyFrontier Corporation (“HollyFrontier”) include HollyFrontier and its consolidated subsidiaries. In accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) “Plain English” guidelines, this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q has been written in the first person. In these financial statements, the words “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” refer only to HollyFrontier and its consolidated subsidiaries or to HollyFrontier or an individual subsidiary and not to any other person, with certain exceptions. Generally, the words “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” include Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (“HEP”) and its subsidiaries as consolidated subsidiaries of HollyFrontier, unless when used in disclosures of transactions or obligations between HEP and HollyFrontier or its other subsidiaries. These financial statements contain certain disclosures of agreements that are specific to HEP and its consolidated subsidiaries and do not necessarily represent obligations of HollyFrontier. When used in descriptions of agreements and transactions, “HEP” refers to HEP and its consolidated subsidiaries. We are an independent petroleum refiner and marketer that produces high-value light products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, specialty lubricant products and specialty and modified asphalt. We own and operate petroleum refineries that serve markets throughout the Southwest United States, the Rocky Mountains extending into the Pacific Northwest and in other neighboring Plains states. In addition, we produce base oils and other specialized lubricants in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, with retail and wholesale marketing of our products through a global sales network with locations in Canada, the United States, Europe, China and Latin America. As of September 30, 2021, we: •owned and operated a petroleum refinery in El Dorado, Kansas (the “El Dorado Refinery”), two refinery facilities located in Tulsa, Oklahoma (collectively, the “Tulsa Refineries”), a refinery in Artesia, New Mexico that is operated in conjunction with crude oil distillation and vacuum distillation and other facilities situated 65 miles away in Lovington, New Mexico (collectively, the “Navajo Refinery”) and a refinery in Woods Cross, Utah (the “Woods Cross Refinery”); •owned a facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which operated as a petroleum refinery until early August 2020, at which time its assets began to be converted to renewable diesel production (the “Cheyenne Refinery”); •owned and operated Petro-Canada Lubricants Inc. (“PCLI”) located in Mississauga, Ontario, which produces base oils and other specialized lubricant products; •owned and operated manufacturing facilities in Petrolia, Pennsylvania and the Netherlands, which produce specialty lubricant products for our Sonneborn business, such as white oils, petrolatums and waxes; •owned and operated Red Giant Oil Company LLC (“Red Giant Oil”), which supplies locomotive engine oil and has storage and distribution facilities in Iowa and Wyoming, along with a blending and packaging facility in Texas; •owned and operated HollyFrontier Asphalt Company LLC (“HFC Asphalt”), which operates various asphalt terminals in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma; and •owned a 57% limited partner interest and a non-economic general partner interest in HEP, a variable interest entity (“VIE”). HEP owns and operates logistic assets consisting of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines, terminals, tankage, loading rack facilities and refinery processing units that principally support our refining and marketing operations in the Mid-Continent, Southwest and Rocky Mountain geographic regions of the United States. On August 2, 2021, HollyFrontier, Hippo Parent Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of HollyFrontier (“New Parent”), Hippo Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of New Parent, The Sinclair Companies (“Sinclair”), and Hippo Holding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair (the “Target Company”), entered into a business combination agreement, pursuant to which HollyFrontier will acquire the Target Company. On May 4, 2021, HollyFrontier Puget Sound Refining LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of HollyFrontier Corporation, entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (“Shell”) to acquire Shell’s Puget Sound refinery and related assets, including the on-site cogeneration facility and related logistics assets (the “Puget Sound Refinery”). The acquisition closed on November 1, 2021. See Note 2 for additional information on these acquisitions. On April 27, 2021, our wholly owned subsidiary, 7037619 Canada Inc., entered into a contract for sale of real property in Mississauga, Ontario for base consideration of $98.8 million, or CAD 125 million. The transaction closed on September 15, 2021, and we recorded a gain on sale of assets totaling $86.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021, which was recognized in “Gain on sale of assets and other” in our consolidated statements of operations. During the first quarter of 2021, we initiated a restructuring within our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment. As a result of this restructuring, we recorded $7.8 million in employee severance costs for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, which were recognized primarily as selling, general and administrative expenses in our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment. In the third quarter of 2020, we permanently ceased petroleum refining operations at our Cheyenne Refinery and subsequently began converting certain assets at our Cheyenne Refinery to renewable diesel production. In connection with the cessation of petroleum refining operations at our Cheyenne Refinery, we recognized $6.7 million and $23.1 million, in decommissioning expense and $0.2 million and $0.9 million, in employee severance costs for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively, which were recognized in operating expenses in our Corporate and Other segment. We recognized $12.3 million in decommissioning expense during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020. In addition, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, we recorded $2.4 million and $3.5 million, respectively, in employee severance costs. These decommissioning and severance costs were recognized in operating expenses and were reported in our Refining segment. Also, during the second quarter of 2020, we recorded a long-lived asset impairment charge of $232.2 million related to our Cheyenne Refinery asset group. During the second quarter of 2020, we initiated and completed a corporate restructuring. As a result of this restructuring, we recorded $3.7 million in employee severance costs, which were recognized primarily as operating expenses in our Refining segment and selling, general and administrative expenses in our Corporate and Other segment. We have prepared these consolidated financial statements without audit. In management’s opinion, these consolidated financial statements include all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of our consolidated financial position as of September 30, 2021, the consolidated results of operations, comprehensive income and statements of equity for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 and consolidated cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC. Although certain notes and other information required by generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) have been condensed or omitted, we believe that the disclosures in these consolidated financial statements are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. These consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 that has been filed with the SEC. Our results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be realized for the year ending December 31, 2021. Accounts Receivable: Our accounts receivable consist of amounts due from customers that are primarily companies in the petroleum industry. Credit is extended based on our evaluation of the customer’s financial condition, and in certain circumstances collateral, such as letters of credit or guarantees, is required. We reserve for expected credit losses based on our historical loss experience as well as expected credit losses from current economic conditions and management’s expectations of future economic conditions. Credit losses are charged to the allowance for expected credit losses when an account is deemed uncollectible. Our allowance for expected credit losses was $5.1 million at September 30, 2021 and $3.4 million at December 31, 2020. Inventories: Inventories related to our refining operations are stated at the lower of cost, using the last-in, first-out (“LIFO”) method for crude oil and unfinished and finished refined products, or market. In periods of rapidly declining prices, LIFO inventories may have to be written down to market value due to the higher costs assigned to LIFO layers in prior periods. In addition, the use of the LIFO inventory method may result in increases or decreases to cost of sales in years that inventory volumes decline as the result of charging cost of sales with LIFO inventory costs generated in prior periods. An actual valuation of inventory under the LIFO method is made at the end of each year based on the inventory levels at that time. Accordingly, interim LIFO calculations are based on management’s estimates of expected year-end inventory levels and are subject to the final year-end LIFO inventory valuation. Inventories of our Petro-Canada Lubricants and Sonneborn businesses are stated at the lower of cost, using the first-in, first-out (“FIFO”) method, or net realizable value. Inventories consisting of process chemicals, materials and maintenance supplies and renewable identification numbers (“RINs”) are stated at the lower of weighted-average cost or net realizable value. Leases: At inception, we determine if an arrangement is or contains a lease. Right-of-use (“ROU”) assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our payment obligation under the leasing arrangement. ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized at the commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. We use our estimated incremental borrowing rate (“IBR”) to determine the present value of lease payments as most of our leases do not contain an implicit rate. Our IBR represents the interest rate which we would pay to borrow, on a collateralized basis, an amount equal to the lease payments over a similar term in a similar economic environment. We use the implicit rate when readily determinable. Operating leases are recorded in operating lease right-of-use assets and current and noncurrent operating lease liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet. Finance leases are included in properties, plants and equipment and accrued liabilities and other long-term liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet. Our lease term includes an option to extend the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise that option. Leases with a term of 12 months or less are not recorded on our balance sheet. For certain equipment leases, we apply a portfolio approach for the operating lease ROU assets and liabilities. Also, as a lessee, we separate non-lease components that are identifiable and exclude them from the determination of net present value of lease payment obligations. In addition, HEP, as a lessor, does not separate the non-lease (service) component in contracts in which the lease component is the dominant component. HEP treats these combined components as a lease. Goodwill and Long-lived Assets: As of September 30, 2021, our goodwill balance was $2.3 billion, with goodwill assigned to our Refining, Lubricants and Specialty Products and HEP segments of $1,733.5 million, $247.0 million and $312.9 million, respectively. See Note 15 for additional information on our segments. The carrying amount of our goodwill may fluctuate from period to period due to the effects of foreign currency translation adjustments on goodwill assigned to our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment. Goodwill represents the excess of the cost of an acquired entity over the fair value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed. Goodwill is not subject to amortization and is tested annually or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying amount. Our goodwill impairment testing first entails either a quantitative assessment or an optional qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If we determine that based on the qualitative factors that it is more likely than not that the carrying amount of the reporting unit is greater than its fair value, a quantitative test is performed in which we estimate the fair value of the related reporting unit. If the carrying amount of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, the goodwill of that reporting unit is impaired, and we measure goodwill impairment as the excess of the carrying amount of the reporting unit over the related fair value. For purposes of long-lived asset impairment evaluation, we have grouped our long-lived assets as follows: (i) our refinery asset groups, which include certain HEP logistics assets, (ii) our Lubricants and Specialty Products asset groups and (iii) our HEP asset groups, which comprises HEP assets not included in our refinery asset groups. These asset groups represent the lowest level for which independent cash flows can be identified. Our long-lived assets are evaluated for impairment by identifying whether indicators of impairment exist and if so, assessing whether the long-lived assets are recoverable from estimated future undiscounted cash flows. The actual amount of impairment loss measured, if any, is equal to the amount by which the asset group’s carrying value exceeds its fair value. We performed our annual goodwill impairment testing quantitatively as of July 1, 2021 and determined there was no impairment of goodwill attributable to our reporting units. During the second quarter of 2020, we recorded long-lived asset impairment charges of $232.2 million and $204.7 million related to our Cheyenne Refinery and PCLI asset groups, respectively. Revenue Recognition: Revenue on refined product and excess crude oil sales are recognized when delivered (via pipeline, in-tank or rack) and the customer obtains control of such inventory, which is typically when title passes and the customer is billed. All revenues are reported inclusive of shipping and handling costs billed and exclusive of any taxes billed to customers. Shipping and handling costs incurred are reported as cost of products sold. Our lubricants and specialty products business has sales agreements with marketers and distributors that provide certain rights of return or provisions for the repurchase of products previously sold to them. Under these agreements, revenues and cost of revenues are deferred until the products have been sold to end customers. Our lubricants and specialty products business also has agreements that create an obligation to deliver products at a future date for which consideration has already been received and recorded as deferred revenue. This revenue is recognized when the products are delivered to the customer. HEP recognizes revenues as products are shipped through its pipelines and terminals and as other services are rendered. Additionally, HEP has certain throughput agreements that specify minimum volume requirements, whereby HEP bills a customer for a minimum level of shipments in the event a customer ships below their contractual requirements. If there are no future performance obligations, HEP recognizes these deficiency payments as revenue. In certain of these throughput agreements, a customer may later utilize such shortfall billings as credit towards future volume shipments in excess of its minimum levels within its respective contractual shortfall make-up period. Such amounts represent an obligation to perform future services, which may be initially deferred and later recognized as revenue based on estimated future shipping levels, including the likelihood of a customer’s ability to utilize such amounts prior to the end of the contractual shortfall make-up period. HEP recognizes the service portion of these deficiency payments as revenue when HEP does not expect it will be required to satisfy these performance obligations in the future based on the pattern of rights exercised by the customer. Payment terms under our contracts with customers are consistent with industry norms and are typically payable within 30 days of the date of invoice. Foreign Currency Translation: Assets and liabilities recorded in foreign currencies are translated into U.S. dollars using exchange rates in effect as of the balance sheet date. Revenue and expense accounts are translated using the weighted-average exchange rates during the period presented. Foreign currency translation adjustments are recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income. We have intercompany notes that were issued to fund certain of our foreign businesses. Remeasurement adjustments resulting from the conversion of intercompany financing amounts to functional currencies are recorded as gains and losses as a component of other income (expense) in the consolidated statements of operations. Such adjustments are not recorded to the Lubricants and Specialty Products segment operations, but to Corporate and Other. See Note 15 for additional information on our segments. Income Taxes: Provisions for income taxes include deferred taxes resulting from temporary differences in income for financial and tax purposes, using the liability method of accounting for income taxes. The liability method requires the effect of tax rate changes on deferred income taxes to be reflected in the period in which the rate change was enacted. The liability method also requires that deferred tax assets be reduced by a valuation allowance unless it is more likely than not that the assets will be realized. Potential interest and penalties related to income tax matters are recognized in income tax expense. We believe we have appropriate support for the income tax positions taken and to be taken on our income tax returns and that our accruals for tax liabilities are adequate for all open years based on an assessment of many factors, including past experience and interpretations of tax law applied to the facts of each matter. For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we recorded income tax expense of $149.9 million compared to an income tax benefit of $188.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. This increase was due principally to pre-tax income during the nine months ended September 30, 2021 compared to a pre-tax loss in the same period of 2020. Our effective tax rates were 18.1% and 31.0% for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The year-over-year decrease in the effective tax rate is due principally to the relationship between the pre-tax results and the earnings attributable to the noncontrolling interest that is not included in income for tax purposes. The difference in the U.S. federal statutory rate and the effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 was primarily due to the net operating loss carryback provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and federal tax credits. Inventory Repurchase Obligations: We periodically enter into same-party sell / buy transactions, whereby we sell certain refined product inventory and subsequently repurchase the inventory in order to facilitate delivery to certain locations. Such sell / buy transactions are accounted for as inventory repurchase obligations under which proceeds received under the initial sell is recognized as an inventory repurchase obligation that is subsequently reversed when the inventory is repurchased. For the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, we received proceeds of $32.7 million and $32.7 million, respectively, and subsequently repaid $34.1 million and $34.4 million, respectively, under these sell / buy transactions.

References herein to HollyFrontier Corporation (“HollyFrontier”) include HollyFrontier and its consolidated subsidiaries. In accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) “Plain English” guidelines, this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q has been written in the first person. In these financial statements, the words “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” refer only to HollyFrontier and its consolidated subsidiaries or to HollyFrontier or an individual subsidiary and not to any other person, with certain exceptions. Generally, the words “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” include Holly Energy Partners, L.P. (“HEP”) and its subsidiaries as consolidated subsidiaries of HollyFrontier, unless when used in disclosures of transactions or obligations between HEP and HollyFrontier or its other subsidiaries. These financial statements contain certain disclosures of agreements that are specific to HEP and its consolidated subsidiaries and do not necessarily represent obligations of HollyFrontier. When used in descriptions of agreements and transactions, “HEP” refers to HEP and its consolidated subsidiaries.

We are an independent petroleum refiner and marketer that produces high-value light products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, specialty lubricant products and specialty and modified asphalt. We own and operate petroleum refineries that serve markets throughout the Southwest United States, the Rocky Mountains extending into the Pacific Northwest and in other neighboring Plains states. In addition, we produce base oils and other specialized lubricants in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, with retail and wholesale marketing of our products through a global sales network with locations in Canada, the United States, Europe, China and Latin America.

•owned and operated a petroleum refinery in El Dorado, Kansas (the “El Dorado Refinery”), two refinery facilities located in Tulsa, Oklahoma (collectively, the “Tulsa Refineries”), a refinery in Artesia, New Mexico that is operated in conjunction with crude oil distillation and vacuum distillation and other facilities situated 65 miles away in Lovington, New Mexico (collectively, the “Navajo Refinery”) and a refinery in Woods Cross, Utah (the “Woods Cross Refinery”);

•owned a 57% limited partner interest and a non-economic general partner interest in HEP, a variable interest entity (“VIE”). HEP owns and operates logistic assets consisting of petroleum product and crude oil pipelines, terminals, tankage, loading rack facilities and refinery processing units that principally support our refining and marketing operations in the Mid-Continent, Southwest and Rocky Mountain geographic regions of the United States.

On August 2, 2021, HollyFrontier, Hippo Parent Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of HollyFrontier (“New Parent”), Hippo Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of New Parent, The Sinclair Companies (“Sinclair”), and Hippo Holding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair (the “Target Company”), entered into a business combination agreement, pursuant to which HollyFrontier will acquire the Target Company.

On May 4, 2021, HollyFrontier Puget Sound Refining LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of HollyFrontier Corporation, entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (“Shell”) to acquire Shell’s Puget Sound refinery and related assets, including the on-site cogeneration facility and related logistics assets (the “Puget Sound Refinery”). The acquisition closed on November 1, 2021.

On April 27, 2021, our wholly owned subsidiary, 7037619 Canada Inc., entered into a contract for sale of real property in Mississauga, Ontario for base consideration of $98.8 million, or CAD 125 million. The transaction closed on September 15, 2021, and we recorded a gain on sale of assets totaling $86.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2021, which was recognized in “Gain on sale of assets and other” in our consolidated statements of operations.

During the first quarter of 2021, we initiated a restructuring within our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment. As a result of this restructuring, we recorded $7.8 million in employee severance costs for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, which were recognized primarily as selling, general and administrative expenses in our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment.

In the third quarter of 2020, we permanently ceased petroleum refining operations at our Cheyenne Refinery and subsequently began converting certain assets at our Cheyenne Refinery to renewable diesel production. In connection with the cessation of petroleum refining operations at our Cheyenne Refinery, we recognized $6.7 million and $23.1 million, in decommissioning expense and $0.2 million and $0.9 million, in employee severance costs for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively, which were recognized in operating expenses in our Corporate and Other segment.

We recognized $12.3 million in decommissioning expense during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020. In addition, during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, we recorded $2.4 million and $3.5 million, respectively, in employee severance costs. These decommissioning and severance costs were recognized in operating expenses and were reported in our Refining segment. Also, during the second quarter of 2020, we recorded a long-lived asset impairment charge of $232.2 million related to our Cheyenne Refinery asset group.

During the second quarter of 2020, we initiated and completed a corporate restructuring. As a result of this restructuring, we recorded $3.7 million in employee severance costs, which were recognized primarily as operating expenses in our Refining segment and selling, general and administrative expenses in our Corporate and Other segment.

We have prepared these consolidated financial statements without audit. In management’s opinion, these consolidated financial statements include all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of our consolidated financial position as of September 30, 2021, the consolidated results of operations, comprehensive income and statements of equity for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 and consolidated cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC. Although certain notes and other information required by generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) have been condensed or omitted, we believe that the disclosures in these consolidated financial statements are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. These consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 that has been filed with the SEC.

Accounts Receivable: Our accounts receivable consist of amounts due from customers that are primarily companies in the petroleum industry. Credit is extended based on our evaluation of the customer’s financial condition, and in certain circumstances collateral, such as letters of credit or guarantees, is required. We reserve for expected credit losses based on our historical loss experience as well as expected credit losses from current economic conditions and management’s expectations of future economic conditions. Credit losses are charged to the allowance for expected credit losses when an account is deemed uncollectible. Our allowance for expected credit losses was $5.1 million at September 30, 2021 and $3.4 million at December 31, 2020.

Inventories: Inventories related to our refining operations are stated at the lower of cost, using the last-in, first-out (“LIFO”) method for crude oil and unfinished and finished refined products, or market. In periods of rapidly declining prices, LIFO inventories may have to be written down to market value due to the higher costs assigned to LIFO layers in prior periods. In addition, the use of the LIFO inventory method may result in increases or decreases to cost of sales in years that inventory volumes decline as the result of charging cost of sales with LIFO inventory costs generated in prior periods. An actual valuation of inventory under the LIFO method is made at the end of each year based on the inventory levels at that time. Accordingly, interim LIFO calculations are based on management’s estimates of expected year-end inventory levels and are subject to the final year-end LIFO inventory valuation.

Leases: At inception, we determine if an arrangement is or contains a lease. Right-of-use (“ROU”) assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our payment obligation under the leasing arrangement. ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized at the commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. We use our estimated incremental borrowing rate (“IBR”) to determine the present value of lease payments as most of our leases do not contain an implicit rate. Our IBR represents the interest rate which we would pay to borrow, on a collateralized basis, an amount equal to the lease payments over a similar term in a similar economic environment. We use the implicit rate when readily determinable.

Our lease term includes an option to extend the lease when it is reasonably certain that we will exercise that option. Leases with a term of 12 months or less are not recorded on our balance sheet. For certain equipment leases, we apply a portfolio approach for the operating lease ROU assets and liabilities. Also, as a lessee, we separate non-lease components that are identifiable and exclude them from the determination of net present value of lease payment obligations. In addition, HEP, as a lessor, does not separate the non-lease (service) component in contracts in which the lease component is the dominant component. HEP treats these combined components as a lease.

Goodwill and Long-lived Assets: As of September 30, 2021, our goodwill balance was $2.3 billion, with goodwill assigned to our Refining, Lubricants and Specialty Products and HEP segments of $1,733.5 million, $247.0 million and $312.9 million, respectively. See Note 15 for additional information on our segments. The carrying amount of our goodwill may fluctuate from period to period due to the effects of foreign currency translation adjustments on goodwill assigned to our Lubricants and Specialty Products segment. Goodwill represents the excess of the cost of an acquired entity over the fair value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed. Goodwill is not subject to amortization and is tested annually or more frequently if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying amount. Our goodwill impairment testing first entails either a quantitative assessment or an optional qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If we determine that based on the qualitative factors that it is more likely than not that the carrying amount of the reporting unit is greater than its fair value, a quantitative test is performed in which we estimate the fair value of the related reporting unit. If the carrying amount of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, the goodwill of that reporting unit is impaired, and we measure goodwill impairment as the excess of the carrying amount of the reporting unit over the related fair value.

For purposes of long-lived asset impairment evaluation, we have grouped our long-lived assets as follows: (i) our refinery asset groups, which include certain HEP logistics assets, (ii) our Lubricants and Specialty Products asset groups and (iii) our HEP asset groups, which comprises HEP assets not included in our refinery asset groups. These asset groups represent the lowest level for which independent cash flows can be identified. Our long-lived assets are evaluated for impairment by identifying whether indicators of impairment exist and if so, assessing whether the long-lived assets are recoverable from estimated future undiscounted cash flows. The actual amount of impairment loss measured, if any, is equal to the amount by which the asset group’s carrying value exceeds its fair value.

Revenue Recognition: Revenue on refined product and excess crude oil sales are recognized when delivered (via pipeline, in-tank or rack) and the customer obtains control of such inventory, which is typically when title passes and the customer is billed. All revenues are reported inclusive of shipping and handling costs billed and exclusive of any taxes billed to customers. Shipping and handling costs incurred are reported as cost of products sold.

Our lubricants and specialty products business has sales agreements with marketers and distributors that provide certain rights of return or provisions for the repurchase of products previously sold to them. Under these agreements, revenues and cost of revenues are deferred until the products have been sold to end customers. Our lubricants and specialty products business also has agreements that create an obligation to deliver products at a future date for which consideration has already been received and recorded as deferred revenue. This revenue is recognized when the products are delivered to the customer.

HEP recognizes revenues as products are shipped through its pipelines and terminals and as other services are rendered. Additionally, HEP has certain throughput agreements that specify minimum volume requirements, whereby HEP bills a customer for a minimum level of shipments in the event a customer ships below their contractual requirements. If there are no future performance obligations, HEP recognizes these deficiency payments as revenue. In certain of these throughput agreements, a customer may later utilize such shortfall billings as credit towards future volume shipments in excess of its minimum levels within its respective contractual shortfall make-up period. Such amounts represent an obligation to perform future services, which may be initially deferred and later recognized as revenue based on estimated future shipping levels, including the likelihood of a customer’s ability to utilize such amounts prior to the end of the contractual shortfall make-up period. HEP recognizes the service portion of these deficiency payments as revenue when HEP does not expect it will be required to satisfy these performance obligations in the future based on the pattern of rights exercised by the customer. Payment terms under our contracts with customers are consistent with industry norms and are typically payable within 30 days of the date of invoice.

Foreign Currency Translation: Assets and liabilities recorded in foreign currencies are translated into U.S. dollars using exchange rates in effect as of the balance sheet date. Revenue and expense accounts are translated using the weighted-average exchange rates during the period presented. Foreign currency translation adjustments are recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income.

We have intercompany notes that were issued to fund certain of our foreign businesses. Remeasurement adjustments resulting from the conversion of intercompany financing amounts to functional currencies are recorded as gains and losses as a component of other income (expense) in the consolidated statements of operations. Such adjustments are not recorded to the Lubricants and Specialty Products segment operations, but to Corporate and Other. See Note 15 for additional information on our segments.

Income Taxes: Provisions for income taxes include deferred taxes resulting from temporary differences in income for financial and tax purposes, using the liability method of accounting for income taxes. The liability method requires the effect of tax rate changes on deferred income taxes to be reflected in the period in which the rate change was enacted. The liability method also requires that deferred tax assets be reduced by a valuation allowance unless it is more likely than not that the assets will be realized.

Potential interest and penalties related to income tax matters are recognized in income tax expense. We believe we have appropriate support for the income tax positions taken and to be taken on our income tax returns and that our accruals for tax liabilities are adequate for all open years based on an assessment of many factors, including past experience and interpretations of tax law applied to the facts of each matter.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we recorded income tax expense of $149.9 million compared to an income tax benefit of $188.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020. This increase was due principally to pre-tax income during the nine months ended September 30, 2021 compared to a pre-tax loss in the same period of 2020. Our effective tax rates were 18.1% and 31.0% for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The year-over-year decrease in the effective tax rate is due principally to the relationship between the pre-tax results and the earnings attributable to the noncontrolling interest that is not included in income for tax purposes. The difference in the U.S. federal statutory rate and the effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 was primarily due to the net operating loss carryback provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and federal tax credits.