Plains All American
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. is a
master limited partnership In the United States, a master limited partnership (MLP) or publicly traded partnership (PTP) is a publicly traded entity taxed as a partnership. It combines the tax benefits of a partnership with the liquidity of publicly traded securities. To ...
engaged in
pipeline transport Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 count ...
, marketing, and storage of liquefied petroleum gas and
petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. It owns interests in of pipelines, storage capacity for about 75 million barrels of crude oil, 28 million barrels of NGLs, 68 billion cubic feet of
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
, and 5 natural gas processing plants. The company is headquartered in the Allen Center in
Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69. The ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
.


History

The company began in 1981 as a small oil and gas exploration and production company called Plains Resources. The company became a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
via an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
in 1998. Major acquisitions include: * 1998 - All American Pipeline System * 1999 -
Scurlock Oil Company The Scurlock Oil Company was an American oil company, with headquarters located in Houston, Texas. History Founded in 1936 by Eddy C. Scurlock, the company was a tank car marketer of petroleum products. It emerged as an important transporter of ...
Permian and west Texas pipeline from Chevron Corporation for $35 million * 2001 - Midstream operations of
Murphy Oil Murphy Oil Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is ranked 625th on the Fortune 500 and 1860th on the Forbes Global 2000. As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimate ...
for $155 million * 2001 - CANPET Energy Group, a liquified gas marketing company based in Canada, for $42 million * 2004 - Capline Pipeline System * 2004 - Link Energy pipeline system for $273 million * 2005 - Assets in Louisiana from
Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,0 ...
for $12 million * 2006 - Pacific Energy Partners for $2.4 billion * 2008 - Rainbow oil pipeline in Northern Alberta * 2012 - Canadian NGL business from BP * 2017 - Alpha Crude Connector gathering system and pipeline in the Permian Basin for $1.2 billion.


Financial performance and credit ratings

The company's net income for the year 2021 was $593 million, as compared to a net loss of $2.59 billion for 2020 and net income of $2.21 billion in 2019. As of April 2022, the company's senior unsecured debt was rated Baa3 by
Moody's Investors Service Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides internationa ...
, and BBB- by
Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings Inc. is an American credit rating agency and is one of the " Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations ( NRSRO ...
and
S&P Global Ratings S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is cons ...
. All three ratings are generally considered "investment grade."


Carbon footprint

Plains All American Pipeline reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 1,929 Kt (-290 /-13.1% y-o-y).Alt URL
/ref>


Environmental controversies


2010 settlement

In 2010, the company agreed to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty for violating the Clean Water Act and to spend $41 million to upgrade more than 10,000 miles of crude oil pipelines after the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...
pressed charges regarding 10 pipeline spills in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas between June 2004 and September 2007 that spilled over 273,000 gallons of crude oil, some of which ended up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.


Little Buffalo oil spill

The 2011 Little Buffalo oil spill was one of the largest land-based oil spills in North America, the largest oil spill in Alberta in 36 years, and the second spill in Alberta within a two-week period. The Rainbow Pipeline system, owned by Plains Midstream Canada, ruptured on April 29, 2011, spilling 28,000 barrels of oil in a fairly isolated stretch of
boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
in northern
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, about four miles from the nearest homes in
Little Buffalo, Alberta Little Buffalo is an Indian settlement and hamlet (place), hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within Northern Sunrise County. It is located on Alberta Highway 986, Highway 986, approximately northeast of the Town of Peace River, Alberta, Peace R ...
. The local school was closed due to concerns about the effects of fumes. The incident resulted in charges against the company in 2013. In 2013, the
Energy Resources Conservation Board The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) was an independent, quasi-judicial agency of the Government of Alberta. It regulated the safe, responsible, and efficient development of Alberta's energy resources: oil, natural gas, oil sands, coal, ...
of Alberta reprimanded the company for operational failures in connection with the oil spill.


Rangeland Pipeline Incident

Heavy rains in early June 2012 caused a leak on a 46-year-old Plains Midstream Canada pipeline at Jackson Creek, Alberta, a tributary of the
Red Deer River The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan-Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay. Red Deer River h ...
, which spilled approximately 1,000-3,000 barrels of light sour crude into the Red Deer River. The company was charged in 2014.


Refugio oil spill

On May 19, 2015, a pipeline operated by the company ruptured northwest of
Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...
. Within 24 hours, oil polluted approximately 9 miles of the Santa Barbara coast. The spill shut down the popular El Capitán State Beach and Campground during
Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
weekend, just prior to the beginning of the summer high season. The spill leaked , including that reached the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. The
United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce The Committee on Energy and Commerce is one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives. Established in 1795, it has operated continuously—with various name changes and jurisdictional changes—for more tha ...
opened an investigation into the oil spill on June 25, 2015. Companies are required to report to the
National Response Center The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...
on the release of hazardous-material "at the earliest practicable moment."; however, the company did not initially report the spill. According to preliminary findings of the federal
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is a United States Department of Transportation agency created in 2004, responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound oper ...
released in June 2015, corrosion had worn a pipeline section to less than an inch thick. By June 2015 the cost of cleanup rose to USD$92 million. Santa Barbara County firefighters were among the first to discover the spill, before being notified by the company, and they "built a rim of rocks to prevent oil from running to the shoreline." In March 2020, the company agreed to pay over $60 million in penalties related to the incident.


Byhalia Connection pipeline

In December 2019, the company announced a joint venture with Valero Energy Corp. to build the Byhalia Connection pipeline – a crude oil pipeline system that would run 49 miles from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi, and connect two existing crude oil pipelines: the Diamond pipeline and the Capline pipeline. Concerns over the pipeline's route through the Memphis Sand aquifer, as well as the city's predominantly Black neighborhoods, sparked an opposition movement. The struggle to stop the pipeline gained widespread attention, with environmental and social justice advocates like Jane Fonda and Danny Glover lending their support. Former Vice-President
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...
called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off,” and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen asked President Joe Biden to consider revoking the project's federal permit. After defending the pipeline and then putting its planned construction on hold in May 2021, the company announced on July 2, 2021 that it was abandoning the project. Community leader Justin J. Pearson called the pipeline’s cancellation an “extraordinary testament to what Memphis and Shelby County can do when citizens build power toward justice.”


References


External links

* {{Finance links , name = Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. , google = PAA , yahoo = PAA , bloomberg = PAA:US , reuters = PAA , sec_cik = PAA , nasdaq = PAA 1981 establishments in Texas 1998 initial public offerings American companies established in 1981 Companies based in Houston Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Nasdaq Energy companies established in 1981 Natural gas pipeline companies Oil companies of the United States Oil pipeline companies Payne County, Oklahoma Petroleum in Oklahoma Non-renewable resource companies established in 1981