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Organization and Basis of Consolidation and Presentation
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2017
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization and Basis of Consolidation and Presentation
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-Q 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 March 31, 2017, 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 53% limited partner interest in Plains AAP, L.P. (“AAP”) through our direct ownership of approximately 150.8 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 holds the non-economic general partner interest in AAP. AAP is a Delaware limited partnership that, as of March 31, 2017, directly owned an approximate 37% limited partner interest in PAA represented by approximately 288.3 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 13 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”) that simplified our governance structure and permanently eliminated 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 common units and the assumption by PAA of all of AAP’s outstanding debt. As part of the Simplification Transactions, 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. The effect of the reverse split has been retroactively applied to all share and per-share amounts presented in this Form 10-Q. See Note 1 to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part IV of our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional discussion of the Simplification Transactions.
 
Definitions
 
Additional defined terms are used in this Form 10-Q and shall have the meanings indicated below:
AOCI
=
Accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss)
ASC
=
Accounting Standards Codification
ASU
=
Accounting Standards Update
Bcf
=
Billion cubic feet
Btu
=
British thermal unit
CAD
=
Canadian dollar
CODM
=
Chief Operating Decision Maker
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
LIBOR
=
London Interbank Offered Rate
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
SEC
=
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
USD
=
United States dollar
WTI
=
West Texas Intermediate


Basis of Consolidation and Presentation
 
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and related notes thereto should be read in conjunction with our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of PAGP and all of its wholly owned subsidiaries and those entities that it controls. 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. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the instructions for interim reporting as set forth by the SEC. All adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) that in the opinion of management were necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim periods have been reflected. 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. The condensed consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 was derived from audited financial statements, but does not include all disclosures required by GAAP. The results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2017 should not be taken as indicative of results to be expected for the entire year.

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