DCP MIDSTREAM PARTNERS, LP
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Years Ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009
1. Description of Business and Basis of Presentation
DCP Midstream Partners, LP, with its consolidated subsidiaries, or us, we or our, is engaged in the
business of gathering, compressing, treating, processing, transporting, storing and selling natural gas; and
producing, fractionating, transporting, storing and selling NGLs and condensate.
We are a Delaware limited partnership that was formed in August 2005. We completed our initial public
offering on December 7, 2005. Our partnership includes: our natural gas services business (which includes our
Northern Louisiana system; our Southern Oklahoma system; our 40% limited liability company interest in
Discovery Producer Services LLC, or Discovery; our Wyoming system; a 75% interest in Collbran Valley Gas
Gathering, LLC, or Collbran or our Colorado system (of which 5% was acquired in February 2010); our 50.1%
interest in DCP East Texas Holdings, LLC, or our East Texas system (of which 25.1% was acquired in April
2009); our Michigan system (a portion of which was acquired November 2009); our 33.33% interest in our DCP
Southeast Texas Holdings, GP, or our Southeast Texas system acquired in January 2011); our NGL logistics
business (which includes Marysville Hydrocarbons Holdings, LLC, or Marysville, acquired in December 2010,
the Wattenberg pipeline acquired in January 2010 and our 100% interest in the Black Lake Pipeline Company, or
Black Lake, 55% of which was acquired in July 2010, comprised of: (1) a 5% interest acquired from DCP
Midstream, LLC, in a transaction among entities under common control, and (2) an additional 50% interest
acquired from an affiliate of BP PLC; and the DJ Basin NGL Fractionators acquired in March 2011); and our
wholesale propane logistics business (which includes Atlantic Energy acquired in July 2010).
Our operations and activities are managed by our general partner, DCP Midstream GP, LP, which in turn is
managed by its general partner, DCP Midstream GP, LLC, which we refer to as the General Partner, and is
wholly-owned by DCP Midstream, LLC. DCP Midstream, LLC and its subsidiaries and affiliates, collectively
referred to as DCP Midstream, LLC, is owned 50% by Spectra Energy Corp, or Spectra Energy, and 50% by
ConocoPhillips. DCP Midstream, LLC directs our business operations through its ownership and control of the
General Partner. DCP Midstream, LLC and its affiliates’ employees provide administrative support to us and
operate most of our assets. DCP Midstream, LLC owns approximately 27% of us. Transactions between us and
other DCP Midstream, LLC operations have been identified in the consolidated financial statements as
transactions between affiliates.
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Partnership and all majority-owned
subsidiaries where we have the ability to exercise control and undivided interests in jointly owned assets.
Investments in greater than 20% owned affiliates that are not variable interest entities and where we do not have
the ability to exercise control, and investments in less than 20% owned affiliates where we have the ability to
exercise significant influence, are accounted for using the equity method. All intercompany balances and
transactions have been eliminated.
In April 2009 and January 2011, we acquired an additional 25.1% limited liability company interest in
East Texas and a 33.33% interest in Southeast Texas, respectively, in transactions among entities under
common control. These transfers of net assets between entities under common control were accounted for as if
the transfer occurred at the beginning of the period, and prior years were retrospectively adjusted to furnish
comparative information similar to the pooling method. Accordingly, our consolidated financial statements
have been adjusted to include the historical results of our 25.1% and 33.33% interests in East Texas and
Southeast Texas, respectively, for all periods presented. We refer to our 25.1% and 33.33% interests in East
Texas and Southeast Texas, prior to our acquisition from DCP Midstream, LLC in April 2009 and January
2011, respectively, as our “predecessor.” We recognize transfers of net assets between entities under common
control at DCP Midstream, LLC’s basis in the net assets contributed. The amount of the purchase price in
excess, or in deficit, of DCP Midstream, LLC’s basis in the net assets is recognized as a reduction, or an
addition, to partners’ equity. The financial statements of our predecessor have been prepared from the separate
records maintained by DCP Midstream, LLC and may not necessarily be indicative of the conditions that would
have existed or the results of operations if our predecessor had been operated as an unaffiliated entity.
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