Plains Marketing

The term "All American" includes Canada for Plains All American Pipeline, which has pipeline operations in the US and north of the border. The limited partnership is engaged in the transportation, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil, refined products, natural gas liquids (NGL) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and owns extensive gathering, terminal, and storage facilities in across the US and in Canada. Plains All American Pipeline owns 18,700 miles of gathering and mainline crude oil pipelines throughout the US and Canada, operated a fleet of 70 trucks and 425 trailers, 83 barges, and 46 transport tugs, and owned storage capacity of 20 million barrels.

Plains All American Pipeline handles more than 3 million barrels of crude oil, refined products, NGL, and LPG per day through its extensive network based in key North American producing basins and transportation gateways.

The company has major gathering, terminal, and storage facilities in California, Louisiana, Oklahoma,  and Texas, and in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

High oil and NGL prices, plus the expansion of its capacity through nine acquisitions in 2011, boosted Plains All American Pipeline's revenues by 32% for the year. It reported a robust net income growth of 91% in 2011, as the increase in costs was eclipsed by the strong revenue growth, fueled by acquisitions, organic expansion, high commodity prices, and favorable market conditions. A recovering economy, higher commodity prices, and increased demand also lifted Plains All American Pipeline's revenue in 2010.

The company has steadily built its portfolio through acquisitions. In recent years Plains All American Pipeline has been pushing hard to expand its midstream operations in order to benefit from the revenue growth available through shipping, storing, and processing higher-priced NGL and LPG. In this context, in 2012 the company bought BP's Canadian NGL operations for $1.7 billion. Canadian subsidiary Plains Midstream Canada acquired BP's Canadian NGL operations in 2012.

That year Plains All American Pipeline also agreed to buy four operating crude oil rail terminals, one terminal under development, and various contractual arrangements from U.S. Development Group for $500 million.

Boosting its US midstream assets, in 2010 Plains All American Pipeline acquired oil gathering properties (which handle about 55,000 barrels a day) and transportation assets (an 18,000-barrels per day pipeline and eight truck terminals) from a unit of Nexen for $210 million. In 2011 it bought SG Resources Mississippi's salt-cavern natural-gas storage facility for $750 million.

In 2011, to further grow its midstream portfolio, the company made a hostile $1.2 bid to acquire rival SemGroup. The deal would have significantly expanded Plains All American Pipeline's pipeline and storage assets. In 2012 the company withdrew its bid without comment.

Not neglecting its traditional business, in 2011 it also bought Western Refining's 70,000 barrels-per-day Yorktown refinery and an underused segment of its crude oil pipeline in southeast New Mexico for $220 million.