Organization and Basis of Consolidation and Presentation

Organization

Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (“PAGP”) is a Delaware limited partnership formed in July 2013 that has elected to be taxed as a corporation for United States federal income tax purposes. PAGP does not directly own any operating assets; as of December 31, 2016, its principal sources of cash flow are derived from an indirect investment in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (“PAA”), a publicly traded Delaware limited partnership. As used in this Form 10-K and unless the context indicates otherwise (taking into account the fact that PAGP has no operating activities apart from those conducted by PAA and its subsidiaries), the terms “Partnership,” “we,” “us,” “our,” “ours” and similar terms refer to PAGP and its subsidiaries.

As of December 31, 2016, our sole assets consisted of (i) a 100% managing member interest in Plains All American GP LLC (“GP LLC”) that has also elected to be taxed as a corporation for United States federal income tax purposes and (ii) an approximate 42% limited partner interest in Plains AAP, L.P. (“AAP”) through our direct ownership of approximately 100.2 million Class A units of AAP (“AAP units”) and indirect ownership of approximately 1.0 million AAP units through GP LLC. GP LLC is a Delaware limited liability company that also holds the non-economic general partner interest in AAP. AAP is a Delaware limited partnership that, as of December 31, 2016, directly owned an approximate 33% limited partner interest in PAA represented by 241.7 million PAA common units. AAP is the sole member of PAA GP LLC (“PAA GP”), a Delaware limited liability company that directly holds the non-economic general partner interest in PAA.

PAA is a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and provides logistics services for crude oil, natural gas liquids (“NGL”), natural gas and refined products. PAA owns an extensive network of pipeline transportation, terminalling, storage and gathering assets in key crude oil and NGL producing basins and transportation corridors and at major market hubs in the United States and Canada. Our business activities are conducted through three operating segments: Transportation, Facilities and Supply and Logistics. See Note 19 for further discussion of our operating segments.

PAA GP Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, is our general partner. Our general partner manages our operations and activities and is responsible for exercising on our behalf any rights we have as the sole and managing member of GP LLC, including responsibility for conducting the business and managing the operations of AAP and PAA. GP LLC employs our domestic officers and personnel involved in the operation and management of AAP and PAA. PAA’s Canadian officers and personnel are employed by our subsidiary, Plains Midstream Canada ULC (“PMC”).

References to the “Plains Entities” include us, our general partner, GP LLC, AAP, PAA GP and PAA and its subsidiaries.

Simplification Transactions

On November 15, 2016, the Plains Entities closed a series of transactions and executed several organizational and ancillary documents (the “Simplification Transactions”) intended to simplify our capital structure, better align the interests of our stakeholders and improve our overall credit profile. The Simplification Transactions included, among other things:


•	the permanent elimination of PAA’s incentive distribution rights (“IDRs”) and the economic rights associated with its 2% general partner interest in exchange for the issuance by PAA to AAP of 245.5 million PAA common units (including approximately 0.8 million units to be issued in the future) and the assumption by PAA of all of AAP’s outstanding debt ($642 million);


•	the implementation of a unified governance structure pursuant to which the board of directors of GP LLC was eliminated and an expanded board of directors of our general partner assumed oversight responsibility over both us and PAA;

•

the provision for annual shareholder elections beginning in 2018 with certain directors with expiring terms in 2018, and the participation of PAA’s common unitholders and Series A preferred unitholders in such elections through PAA’s ownership of our newly issued Class C shares, which provide PAA, as the sole holder, the right to vote in elections of eligible directors together with the holders of our Class A and Class B shares;

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the execution by AAP of a reverse split to adjust the number of AAP units such that the number of outstanding AAP units (assuming the conversion of AAP Class B units (the “AAP Management Units”) into AAP units) equaled the number of PAA common units received by AAP at the closing of the Simplification Transactions. Simultaneously, we executed a reverse split to adjust the number of Class A and Class B shares outstanding to equal the number of AAP units we own following AAP’s reverse unit split. These reverse splits, along with the Omnibus Agreement, resulted in economic alignment between our Class A shareholders and PAA’s common unitholders, such that the number of outstanding Class A shares equals the number of AAP units owned by us, which in turn equals the number of PAA common units held by AAP. The Plains Entities also entered into an Omnibus Agreement, pursuant to which such one-to-one relationship will be maintained subsequent to the closing of the Simplification Transactions; and

•

the creation of a right for certain holders of the AAP units to cause AAP to redeem such AAP units in exchange for an equal number of PAA common units held by AAP. Holders of AAP units other than us and GP LLC continue to have the right to exchange their AAP units (together with the corresponding Class B shares and, if applicable, units of our general partner) for our Class A shares on a one-for-one basis.

The Simplification Transactions were between and among consolidated subsidiaries of PAGP that are considered entities under common control. These equity transactions did not result in a change in the carrying value of the underlying assets and liabilities. In addition, the Simplification Transactions did not result in a change in ownership interest of PAGP in PAA as described in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 810-10-45-22, but instead were designed to be an exchange of equal economic ownership interests.

Reverse Split

As part of the Simplification Transactions, as discussed above, we effected a reverse split of our Class A and Class B shares, in each case, at a ratio of approximately 1-for-2.663. Accordingly, our Class A shares began trading on a split-adjusted basis on the NYSE at the opening of trading on November 16, 2016. The effect of the reverse split has been retroactively applied to all share and per-share amounts presented in this Form 10-K.

Definitions

Additional defined terms are used in the following notes and shall have the meanings indicated below:



AOCI	=	Accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss)
Bcf	=	Billion cubic feet
Btu	=	British thermal unit
CAD	=	Canadian dollar
DERs	=	Distribution equivalent rights
EBITDA	=	Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
EPA	=	United States Environmental Protection Agency
FASB	=	Financial Accounting Standards Board
GAAP	=	Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States
ICE	=	Intercontinental Exchange
IPO	=	Initial public offering
LTIP	=	Long-term incentive plan
Mcf	=	Thousand cubic feet
NGL	=	Natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane and butane
NYMEX	=	New York Mercantile Exchange
Oxy	=	Occidental Petroleum Corporation or its subsidiaries
PLA	=	Pipeline loss allowance
USD	=	United States dollar
WTI	=	West Texas Intermediate

Basis of Consolidation and Presentation

The accompanying financial statements and related notes present and discuss our consolidated financial position as of December 31, 2016 and 2015, and the consolidated results of our operations, cash flows, changes in partners’ capital, comprehensive income and changes in accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss) for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014. All significant intercompany transactions have been eliminated in consolidation, and certain reclassifications have been made to information from previous years to conform to the current presentation. These reclassifications do not affect net income attributable to PAGP. The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of PAGP and all of its wholly owned subsidiaries and those entities that it controls. Under GAAP, we consolidate PAA, AAP and GP LLC. Amounts associated with the interests in these entities not owned by us are reflected in our results of operations as net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and on our balance sheet in the partners’ capital section as noncontrolling interests. Investments in entities over which we have significant influence but not control are accounted for by the equity method. We apply proportionate consolidation for pipelines and other assets in which we own undivided joint interests.

On January 1, 2016 we adopted FASB guidance regarding the analysis that a reporting entity must perform to determine whether it should consolidate certain types of legal entities. Among other things, the guidance modified the evaluation of whether limited partnerships are variable interest entities (“VIE”) and eliminates the presumption that a general partner should consolidate a limited partnership. Prior to the closing of the Simplification Transactions, we determined that PAA and AAP were VIEs, which did not impact our consolidation conclusions, but did result in a change in our analysis and an increase in disclosures regarding our analysis. PAA was a VIE due to its allocation of income, but not losses, to the holder(s) of IDRs. AAP was a VIE because GP LLC controlled AAP through its general partnership interest, but did not have an economic interest in AAP. AAP was the primary beneficiary of PAA because it had the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact PAA’s performance. PAGP was the primary beneficiary of AAP because it had the power, through its control of GP LLC, to direct the activities that most significantly impacted AAP’s performance. However, because of the elimination of the IDRs and the conversion of GP LLC’s ownership interest in AAP to an economic interest as a result of the Simplification Transactions, AAP and PAA no longer meet the requirements to be considered VIEs. This did not result in a change in our consolidation conclusions.

Subsequent events have been evaluated through the financial statements issuance date and have been included in the following footnotes where applicable.