As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 25, 2016

Registration No. 333-     

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-8

REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

NuStar Energy L.P.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

NuStar GP, LLC Fifth Amended and Restated 2000
Long-Term Incentive Plan
(Full title of the plan)

Amy L. Perry
Senior Vice President, General Counsel - Corporate & Commercial Law and Corporate Secretary
NuStar GP, LLC
19003 IH-10 West
San Antonio, Texas 78257
(Name and address of agent for service)

(210) 918-2000
(Telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:
George J. Vlahakos
Andrews Kurth LLP
600 Travis, Suite 4200
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 220-4200

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

(1)         Pursuant to Rule 416(a) under the Securities Act of 1933, there is also being registered such additional number of common units as may become issuable pursuant to the adjustment provisions of the plan.

(2)         Represents the additional common units reserved for issuance under the NuStar GP, LLC Fifth Amended and Restated 2000 Long-Term Incentive Plan.

(3)         The registration fee for such common units was calculated in accordance with Rule 457(c) and (h) under the Securities Act of 1933 based on the average of the high and low prices of the common units as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on February 19, 2016.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This registration statement (the “Registration Statement”) registers an additional 1,750,000 common units representing limited partner interests (the “Common Units”) in NuStar Energy L.P. (the “Partnership”) issuable under the NuStar GP, LLC Fifth Amended and Restated 2000 Long-Term Incentive Plan (the “Plan”).  This registration of 1,750,000 Common Units will increase the number of Common Units registered for issuance under the Plan to 3,250,000 as a result of amendments to the Plan.  As permitted by General Instruction E to the Form S-8, this Registration Statement incorporates by reference the registration statement on Form S-8, File No. 333-81806, which was filed by the Partnership with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on January 31, 2002 and registered 250,000 Common Units, and File No. 333-138133, which was filed by the Partnership with the Commission on October 20, 2006 and registered 1,250,000 Common Units. Any capitalized terms not defined herein, shall have the meaning set forth in the Third Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership of NuStar Energy L.P., as amended (the “Partnership Agreement”).

PART I

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS

The document(s) containing the information specified in Part I of Form S-8 (plan information and registrant information) will be sent or given to employees as specified by Rule 428(b)(1) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).  In accordance with Rule 428 and the requirements of Part I of Form S-8, such documents are not being filed with the Commission either as part of this Registration Statement or as prospectuses or prospectus supplements pursuant to Rule 424 under the Securities Act.  The Partnership shall maintain a file of such documents in accordance with the provisions of Rule 428(a)(2) of the Securities Act.  Upon request, the Partnership shall furnish to the Commission or its staff a copy of any or all of the documents included in the file.

PART II

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT

Item 3.                   Incorporation of Documents by Reference.

Except to the extent that information is deemed furnished and not filed pursuant to securities laws and regulations, the following documents, which have been previously filed by the Partnership with the Commission, are incorporated by reference into this Registration Statement and will be deemed to be a part hereof:

(1)           The Partnership’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with the Commission on February 25, 2016;

(2)           The Partnership’s Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the Commission on January 27, 2016 and January 29, 2016 (related to the Plan); and

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(3)           The description of the Partnership’s Common Units contained in the Partnership’s registration statement on Form 8-A filed with the Commission on March 30, 2001.

All documents filed with the Commission by the Partnership pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (excluding any information furnished on any current report on Form 8-K) subsequent to the date of this Registration Statement and prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in this Registration Statement and to be a part hereof from the date of filing of such documents.

Any statement contained herein or in a document incorporated or deemed to be incorporated herein by reference shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration Statement to the extent that a statement contained herein or in any subsequently filed document which also is, or is deemed to be, incorporated by reference herein modifies or supersedes such statement.  Any such statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this Registration Statement.

Item 4.                   Description of Securities.

Not applicable.

Item 5.                   Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.

Not applicable.

Item 6.                   Indemnification of Directors and Officers.

Section 17-108 of the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act provides that, subject to such standards and restrictions, if any, as are set forth in its partnership agreement, a Delaware limited partnership may, and shall have the power to, indemnify and hold harmless any partner or other person from and against any and all claims and demands whatsoever. The Partnership Agreement provides that the Partnership will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, indemnify and advance expenses to its General Partner, any Departing Partner, any Person who is or was an Affiliate of its General Partner or any Departing Partner, any Person who is or was a member, partner, officer, director, employee, agent or trustee of any Group Member, the General Partner or any Departing Partner or any Affiliate of any Group Member, the General Partner or any Departing Partner and any person who is or was serving at the request of the General Partner or any Departing Partner or any Affiliate of the General Partner or any Departing Partner as an officer, director, employee, member, partner, agent, fiduciary or trustee of another person (“Indemnitees”), (provided, that a Person shall not be an Indemnitee by reason of providing, on a fee-for-services basis, trustee, fiduciary or custodial services) from and against any and all losses, claims, damages, liabilities, joint or several, expenses (including legal fees and expenses), judgments, fines, penalties, interest, settlements and other amounts arising from any and all claims, demands, actions, suits or proceedings, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, in which any Indemnitee may be involved, or is threatened to be involved, as a party or otherwise, by reason of its status as an Indemnitee; provided, that in each case the Indemnitee acted in good faith and in a manner which such Indemnitee reasonably believed to be

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in, or (in the case of a Person other than the General Partner) not opposed to the best interests of the Partnership and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe its conduct was unlawful; provided, further, no indemnification pursuant to the Partnership Agreement shall be available to the General Partner with respect to its obligations incurred pursuant to the Underwriting Agreement or the Contribution Agreement (other than obligations incurred by the General Partner on behalf of the Partnership or the Operating Partnership). This indemnification may, under certain circumstances, include indemnification for liabilities under the Securities Act. In addition, each Indemnitee is automatically entitled to the advancement of expenses in connection with the foregoing indemnification. Any indemnification under these provisions will only be out of the assets of the Partnership; the General Partner shall not be personally liable for such indemnification and shall have no obligation to contribute or loan any monies or property to the Partnership to enable it to effectuate such indemnification.

The Partnership is authorized to purchase (or to reimburse the General Partner or its Affiliates for the costs of) insurance, on behalf of the General Partner, its Affiliates and such other Persons as the General Partner shall determine, against any liability that may be asserted against or expense that may be incurred by such Person in connection with the Partnership’s activities or such Person’s activities on behalf of the Partnership, regardless of whether the Partnership would have the power to indemnify such Person against such liability under the provisions of the Partnership Agreement.

Section 18-108 of the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act provides that, subject to such standards and restrictions, if any, as are set forth in its limited liability company agreement, a Delaware limited liability company may, and shall have the power to, indemnify and hold harmless any member or manager or other person from and against any and all claims and demands whatsoever.

The First Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement of NuStar GP, LLC, as amended (the “LLC Agreement”), contains the following provisions relating to indemnification of, among others, its officers and directors.  Terms not otherwise defined have the meaning set forth in the LLC Agreement.

“15. INDEMNIFICATION. (a) Right to Indemnification. Each person who was or is made a party or is threatened to be made a party to or is otherwise involved in any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative, or investigative (hereinafter a “proceeding”), by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a director or an officer of the Company or is or was serving at the request of the Company as a director, officer, employee, or agent of another company or of a partnership, joint venture, trust, or other enterprise, including service with respect to an employee benefit plan (“Indemnitee”), whether the basis of such proceeding is alleged action in an official capacity as a director, officer, employee, or agent or in any other capacity while serving as a director, officer, employee, or agent, shall be indemnified and held harmless by the Company to the fullest extent permitted or required by the Act, as the same exists or may hereafter be amended (but, in the case of any such amendment, only to the extent that such amendment permits the Company to provide broader indemnification rights than such law permitted the Company to provide prior to such amendment), against all expense, liability and loss (including attorneys’ fees, judgments, fines, ERISA excise

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taxes or penalties and amounts paid in settlement) reasonably incurred or suffered by such Indemnitee in connection therewith; provided, however, that, except as provided in Section 15(c) with respect to proceedings to enforce rights to indemnification, that Company shall indemnify any such Indemnitee in connection with a proceeding (or part thereof) initiated by such Indemnitee only if such proceeding (or part thereof) was authorized by the Board of Directors of the Company.

(b) Right to Advancement of Expenses. The right to indemnification conferred in this Section 15(b) shall include the right to be advanced by the Company the expenses (including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and expenses) incurred in defending any such proceeding in advance of its final disposition (hereinafter an “advancement of expenses”); provided, however, that, if the Act so requires, an advancement of expenses incurred by an Indemnitee in his or her capacity as a director or officer (and not in any other capacity in which service was or is rendered by such Indemnitee, including, without limitation, service to an employee benefit plan) shall be made only upon delivery to the Company of an undertaking (an “Undertaking”), by or on behalf of such Indemnitee, to repay all amounts so advanced if it shall ultimately be determined by final judicial decision from which there is no further right to appeal (a “Final Adjudication”) that such Indemnitee is not entitled to be indemnified for such expenses under this Section 15(b) or otherwise. The rights to indemnification and to the advancement of expenses conferred in Sections 15(a) and 15(b) shall be contract rights and such rights shall continue as to an Indemnitee who has ceased to be a director, officer, employee, or agent and shall inure to the benefit of the Indemnitee’s heirs, executors and administrators.

(c) Right of Indemnitee to Bring Suit. If a claim under Section 15(a) or 15(b) is not paid in full by the Company within 60 calendar days after a written claim has been received by the Company, except in the case of a claim for an advancement of expenses, in which case the applicable period shall be 20 calendar days, the Indemnitee may at any time thereafter bring suit against the Company to recover the unpaid amount of the claim. If successful in whole or in part in any such suit, or in a suit brought by the Company to recover an advancement of expenses pursuant to the terms of an Undertaking, the Indemnitee shall be entitled to be paid also the expense of prosecuting or defending such suit. In any suit brought by the Indemnitee to enforce a right to indemnification hereunder (but not in a suit brought by the Indemnitee to enforce a right to an advancement of expenses) it shall be a defense that the Indemnitee has not met any applicable standard for indemnification set forth in the Act. Neither the failure of the Company (including its Board of Directors, independent legal counsel, or its Member) to have made a determination prior to the commencement of such suit that indemnification of the Indemnitee is proper in the circumstances because the Indemnitee has met the applicable standard of conduct set forth in the Act, nor an actual determination by the Company (including its Board of Directors, independent legal counsel, or its Member) that the Indemnitee has not met such applicable standard of conduct shall create a presumption that the Indemnitee has not met the applicable standard of conduct or, in the case of such a suit brought by the Indemnitee, be a defense to such suit. If any suit brought by the Indemnitee to enforce a right to indemnification or to an advancement of expenses hereunder, or brought by the Company to recover an advancement of expenses pursuant to the terms of an Undertaking, the burden of proving that the Indemnitee is not entitled to be indemnified, or to such advancement of expenses, under this Section 15 or otherwise, shall be on the Company.

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(d) Non-Exclusivity of Rights. The rights to indemnification and to the advancement of expenses conferred in this Section 15 shall not be exclusive of any other right which any person may have or hereafter acquire under any statute, this Agreement, vote of members, or disinterested directors or otherwise.”

We have obtained directors’ and officers’ insurance to protect NuStar Energy L.P. and the officers and directors of its general partner against losses arising from certain claims, including claims under the Securities Act.

Item 7.                   Exemption from Registration Claimed.

Not applicable.

Item 8.                   Exhibits.

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* Filed herewith.

Item 9.                   Undertakings.

(a)           The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes:

(1)           To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this Registration Statement:

(i)            To include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act;

(ii)           To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the Registration Statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the Registration Statement.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, any increase or decrease in volume of securities offered (if the total dollar value of securities

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offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20% change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the “Calculation of Registration Fee” table in the effective Registration Statement;

(iii)          To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the Registration Statement or any material change to such information in the Registration Statement;

Provided, however, that paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) of this section do not apply if the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed with or furnished to the Commission by the registrant pursuant to section 13 or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement.

(2)           That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new Registration Statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

(3)           To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

(b)           The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each filing of the registrant’s annual report pursuant to section 13(a) or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by reference in the Registration Statement shall be deemed to be a new Registration Statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

(c)           Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable.  In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment of the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act, the registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of San Antonio, State of Texas, on February 25, 2016.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Bradley C. Barron, Thomas R. Shoaf and Amy L. Perry, each of them, either of whom may act without the joinder of the other, as his true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent with full power of substitution and resubstitution, for him and in his name, place and stead, in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments (including pre-effective and post-effective amendments) to this Registration Statement and any additional registration statement pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite or necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully to all intents and purposes as he might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact and agents, or his substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this Registration Statement has been signed below by the following persons in the capacities indicated below on February 25, 2016.

Each person above holds his respective position at NuStar GP, LLC (the general partner of Riverwalk Logistics, L.P., the general partner of NuStar Energy L.P.).

EXHIBIT INDEX

* Filed herewith.