HOUSTON, Feb. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (Nasdaq: PAA) and Plains GP Holdings (Nasdaq: PAGP) today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results, announced 2024 guidance and provided the following highlights:

2023 Highlights

• Fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 Net income attributable to PAA of $312 million and $1.23 billion, respectively, and 2023 Net cash provided by operating activities of $1.01 billion and $2.73 billion, respectively
  
  
• Delivered strong fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA above the top-end of guidance with $737 million and $2.71 billion, respectively
  
  
• Generated full-year 2023 Adjusted Free Cash Flow (excluding changes in Assets & Liabilities) of $1.60 billion and achieved year-end leverage of 3.1x
  
  
• Delivered on commitment to increase cash return to equity holders by increasing distributions $0.20 per unit annualized in February 2023, representing a 23% aggregate increase in the annualized distribution versus 2022 levels
  
  
• High graded the asset base through continued portfolio optimization including two asset sales and three bolt-on acquisitions
  
  
• Received two credit rating agency upgrades demonstrating progress on deleveraging efforts and our target to achieve BBB credit ratings
  

2024 Outlook

• Expect full-year 2024 Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA of $2.625 - $2.725 billion
  
  
• Reaffirming leverage ratio target range of 3.25x - 3.75x reflecting commitment to balance sheet strength and flexibility
  
  
• Board approved increasing the annualized common distribution by $0.20 to $1.27 per unit commencing in February 2024, representing a 19% aggregate increase in the annualized distribution versus 2023 levels
  
  
• Expect to generate approximately $1.65 billion of Adjusted Free Cash Flow (excluding changes in Assets & Liabilities) and $500 million of Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions (excluding changes in Assets & Liabilities)
  
  
• Remain focused on disciplined capital investments, anticipating full-year 2024 Investment and Maintenance Capital of +/- $375 million and +/- $230 million, net to PAA, respectively
  

“Strong execution in 2023 drove better-than-expected results and allowed us to accelerate progress on our long-term goals and objectives. This included lowering our leverage ratio target range, increasing capital returns to equity holders through increased distributions, and completing multiple win-win strategic transactions in both our Crude Oil and NGL segments,” said Willie Chiang, Chairman and CEO of Plains. “Looking forward to 2024, Plains remains well-positioned to deliver value to our unitholders through our continued focus on generating strong free cash flow, capital discipline, and increasing returns to unitholders all while maintaining our financial flexibility.”

Plains All American Pipeline

Summary Financial Information (unaudited)
(in millions, except per unit data)

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**      Indicates that variance as a percentage is not meaningful.

Summary of Selected Financial Data by Segment (unaudited)
(in millions)

Fourth-quarter 2023 Crude Oil Segment Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% versus comparable 2022 results primarily due to higher volumes across our pipeline systems, contributions from acquisitions and the benefit of tariff escalation, partially offset by fewer market-based opportunities for our merchant activities.

Fourth-quarter 2023 NGL Segment Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% versus comparable 2022 results primarily due to favorable NGL basis differentials and additional market-based opportunities partially offset by the divestiture of our interest in the KFS facility and increased field operating costs.

Plains GP Holdings

PAGP owns an indirect non-economic controlling interest in PAA’s general partner and an indirect limited partner interest in PAA. As the control entity of PAA, PAGP consolidates PAA’s results into its financial statements, which is reflected in the condensed consolidating balance sheet and income statement tables attached hereto.

Conference Call and Webcast Instructions

PAA and PAGP will hold a joint conference call at 9:00 a.m. CT on Friday, February 9, 2024 to discuss fourth-quarter performance and related items.

To access the internet webcast, please go to https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/ukgq4wwt/.

Alternatively, the webcast can be accessed on our website (www.plains.com) under Investor Relations (Navigate to: Investor Relations / either “PAA” or “PAGP” / News & Events / Events & Presentations). Following the live webcast, an audio replay will be available on our website and will be accessible for a period of 365 days. Slides will be posted prior to the call at the above referenced website.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Selected Items Impacting Comparability

To supplement our financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, management uses additional measures known as “non-GAAP financial measures” in its evaluation of past performance and prospects for the future and to assess the amount of cash that is available for distributions, debt repayments, common equity repurchases and other general partnership purposes. The primary additional measures used by management are Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA, Implied Distributable Cash Flow (“DCF”), Adjusted Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions.

Our definition and calculation of certain non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures of other companies. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA, Implied DCF and certain other non-GAAP financial performance measures are reconciled to Net Income, and Adjusted Free Cash Flow, Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions and certain other non-GAAP financial liquidity measures are reconciled to Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (the most directly comparable measures as reported in accordance with GAAP) for the historical periods presented in the tables attached to this release, and should be viewed in addition to, and not in lieu of, our Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes. In addition, we encourage you to visit our website at www.plains.com (in particular the section under “Financial Information” entitled “Non-GAAP Reconciliations” within the Investor Relations tab), which presents a reconciliation of our commonly used non-GAAP and supplemental financial measures. We do not reconcile non-GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis as it is impractical to do so without unreasonable effort.

Non-GAAP Financial Performance Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest expense, income tax (expense)/benefit, depreciation and amortization (including our proportionate share of depreciation and amortization, including write-downs related to cancelled projects and impairments, of unconsolidated entities), gains and losses on asset sales and asset impairments and gains or losses on investments in unconsolidated entities, adjusted for certain selected items impacting comparability. Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA excludes the portion of Adjusted EBITDA that is attributable to noncontrolling interests.

Management believes that the presentation of Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA and Implied DCF provides useful information to investors regarding our performance and results of operations because these measures, when used to supplement related GAAP financial measures, (i) provide additional information about our core operating performance and ability to fund distributions to our unitholders through cash generated by our operations and (ii) provide investors with the same financial analytical framework upon which management bases financial, operational, compensation and planning/budgeting decisions. We also present these and additional non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income attributable to PAA and basic and diluted adjusted net income per common unit, as they are measures that investors, rating agencies and debt holders have indicated are useful in assessing us and our results of operations. These non-GAAP financial performance measures may exclude, for example, (i) charges for obligations that are expected to be settled with the issuance of equity instruments, (ii) gains and losses on derivative instruments that are related to underlying activities in another period (or the reversal of such adjustments from a prior period), gains and losses on derivatives that are either related to investing activities (such as the purchase of linefill) or purchases of long-term inventory, and inventory valuation adjustments, as applicable, (iii) long-term inventory costing adjustments, (iv) items that are not indicative of our core operating results and/or (v) other items that we believe should be excluded in understanding our core operating performance. These measures may be further adjusted to include amounts related to deficiencies associated with minimum volume commitments whereby we have billed the counterparties for their deficiency obligation and such amounts are recognized as deferred revenue in “Other current liabilities” in our Consolidated Financial Statements. We also adjust for amounts billed by our equity method investees related to deficiencies under minimum volume commitments. Such amounts are presented net of applicable amounts subsequently recognized into revenue. Furthermore, the calculation of these measures contemplates tax effects as a separate reconciling item, where applicable. We have defined all such items as “selected items impacting comparability.” Due to the nature of the selected items, certain selected items impacting comparability may impact certain non-GAAP financial measures, referred to as adjusted results, but not impact other non-GAAP financial measures. We do not necessarily consider all of our selected items impacting comparability to be non-recurring, infrequent or unusual, but we believe that an understanding of these selected items impacting comparability is material to the evaluation of our operating results and prospects.

Although we present selected items impacting comparability that management considers in evaluating our performance, you should also be aware that the items presented do not represent all items that affect comparability between the periods presented. Variations in our operating results are also caused by changes in volumes, prices, exchange rates, mechanical interruptions, acquisitions, divestitures, investment capital projects and numerous other factors. These types of variations may not be separately identified in this release, but will be discussed, as applicable, in management’s discussion and analysis of operating results in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Non-GAAP Financial Liquidity Measures

Management uses the non-GAAP financial liquidity measures Adjusted Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions to assess the amount of cash that is available for distributions, debt repayments, common equity repurchases and other general partnership purposes. Adjusted Free Cash Flow is defined as Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities, less Net Cash Provided by/(Used in) Investing Activities, which primarily includes acquisition, investment and maintenance capital expenditures, investments in unconsolidated entities and the impact from the purchase and sale of linefill, net of proceeds from the sales of assets and further impacted by distributions to and contributions from noncontrolling interests. Adjusted Free Cash Flow is further reduced by cash distributions paid to our preferred and common unitholders to arrive at Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions.

We also present these measures and additional non-GAAP financial liquidity measures as they are measures that investors have indicated are useful. We present the Adjusted Free Cash Flow (Excluding Changes in Assets & Liabilities) for use in assessing our underlying business liquidity and cash flow generating capacity excluding fluctuations caused by timing of when amounts earned or incurred were collected, received or paid from period to period. Adjusted Free Cash Flow (Excluding Changes in Assets & Liabilities) is defined as Adjusted Free Cash Flow excluding the impact of “Changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions” on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Adjusted Free Cash Flow (Excluding Changes in Assets & Liabilities) is further reduced by cash distributions paid to our preferred and common unitholders to arrive at Adjusted Free Cash Flow after Distributions (Excluding Changes in Assets & Liabilities).

PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in millions, except per unit data)

PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET DATA
(in millions)

DEBT CAPITALIZATION RATIOS
(in millions)

PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

COMPUTATION OF BASIC AND DILUTED NET INCOME PER COMMON UNIT ⁽¹⁾
(in millions, except per unit data)

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(in millions)

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES
(in millions)

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

NON-GAAP RECONCILIATIONS

(in millions, except per unit and ratio data)

COMPUTATION OF BASIC AND DILUTED ADJUSTED NET INCOME PER COMMON UNIT ⁽¹⁾

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Net Income Per Common Unit to Adjusted Net Income Per Common Unit Reconciliation:

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA and Implied DCF Reconciliation:

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Net Income Per Common Unit to Implied DCF Per Common Unit and Common Unit Equivalent Reconciliation:

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Non-GAAP Financial Liquidity Measures Reconciliation:

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

SELECTED ITEMS IMPACTING COMPARABILITY
(in millions)

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA BY SEGMENT
(in millions)

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA BY SEGMENT
(in millions)

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

OPERATING DATA BY SEGMENT

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PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

NON-GAAP SEGMENT RECONCILIATIONS
(in millions)

Supplemental Adjusted EBITDA attributable to PAA Reconciliation:

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PLAINS GP HOLDINGS AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATING STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in millions, except per share data)

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PLAINS GP HOLDINGS AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATING STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in millions, except per share data)

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PLAINS GP HOLDINGS AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATING BALANCE SHEET DATA
(in millions)

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PLAINS GP HOLDINGS AND SUBSIDIARIES
FINANCIAL SUMMARY (unaudited)

COMPUTATION OF BASIC AND DILUTED NET INCOME PER CLASS A SHARE
(in millions, except per share data)

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this release consist of forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from results or outcomes anticipated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the following:

• general economic, market or business conditions in the United States and elsewhere (including the potential for a recession or significant slowdown in economic activity levels, the risk of persistently high inflation and continued supply chain issues, the impact of global public health events, such as pandemics, on demand and growth, and the timing, pace and extent of economic recovery) that impact (i) demand for crude oil, drilling and production activities and therefore the demand for the midstream services we provide and (ii) commercial opportunities available to us;
• declines in global crude oil demand and crude oil prices (whether due to global public health events, such as pandemics, or other factors) or other factors that correspondingly lead to a significant reduction of North American crude oil and NGL production (whether due to reduced producer cash flow to fund drilling activities or the inability of producers to access capital, or both, the unavailability of pipeline and/or storage capacity, the shutting-in of production by producers, government-mandated pro-ration orders, or other factors), which in turn could result in significant declines in the actual or expected volume of crude oil and NGL shipped, processed, purchased, stored, fractionated and/or gathered at or through the use of our assets and/or the reduction of the margins we can earn or the commercial opportunities that might otherwise be available to us;
• fluctuations in refinery capacity in areas supplied by our mainlines and other factors affecting demand for various grades of crude oil and NGL and resulting changes in pricing conditions or transportation throughput requirements;
• unanticipated changes in crude oil and NGL market structure, grade differentials and volatility (or lack thereof);
• the effects of competition and capacity overbuild in areas where we operate, including downward pressure on rates, volumes and margins, contract renewal risk and the risk of loss of business to other midstream operators who are willing or under pressure to aggressively reduce transportation rates in order to capture or preserve customers;
• negative societal sentiment regarding the hydrocarbon energy industry and the continued development and consumption of hydrocarbons, which could influence consumer preferences and governmental or regulatory actions that adversely impact our business;
• environmental liabilities, litigation or other events that are not covered by an indemnity, insurance or existing reserves;
• the occurrence of a natural disaster, catastrophe, terrorist attack (including eco-terrorist attacks) or other event that materially impacts our operations, including cyber or other attacks on our electronic and computer systems;
• weather interference with business operations or project construction, including the impact of extreme weather events or conditions;
• the impact of current and future laws, rulings, governmental regulations, executive orders, trade policies, accounting standards and statements, and related interpretations, including legislation, executive orders or regulatory initiatives that prohibit, restrict or regulate hydraulic fracturing or that prohibit the development of oil and gas resources and the related infrastructure on lands dedicated to or served by our pipelines or that negatively impact our ability to develop, operate or repair midstream assets;
• loss of key personnel and inability to attract and retain new talent;
• disruptions to futures markets for crude oil, NGL and other petroleum products, which may impair our ability to execute our commercial or hedging strategies;
• the effectiveness of our risk management activities;
• shortages or cost increases of supplies, materials or labor;
• maintenance of our credit rating and ability to receive open credit from our suppliers and trade counterparties;
• the successful operation of joint ventures and joint operating arrangements we enter into from time to time, whether relating to assets operated by us or by third parties, and the successful integration and future performance of acquired assets or businesses;
• the availability of, and our ability to consummate, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other strategic opportunities;
• the refusal or inability of our customers or counterparties to perform their obligations under their contracts with us (including commercial contracts, asset sale agreements and other agreements), whether justified or not and whether due to financial constraints (such as reduced creditworthiness, liquidity issues or insolvency), market constraints, legal constraints (including governmental orders or guidance), the exercise of contractual or common law rights that allegedly excuse their performance (such as force majeure or similar claims) or other factors;
• our inability to perform our obligations under our contracts, whether due to non-performance by third parties, including our customers or counterparties, market constraints, third-party constraints, supply chain issues, legal constraints (including governmental orders or guidance), or other factors or events;
• the incurrence of costs and expenses related to unexpected or unplanned capital expenditures, third-party claims or other factors;
• failure to implement or capitalize, or delays in implementing or capitalizing, on investment capital projects, whether due to permitting delays, permitting withdrawals or other factors;
• tightened capital markets or other factors that increase our cost of capital or limit our ability to obtain debt or equity financing on satisfactory terms to fund additional acquisitions, investment capital projects, working capital requirements and the repayment or refinancing of indebtedness;
• the amplification of other risks caused by volatile financial markets, capital constraints, liquidity concerns and inflation;
• the use or availability of third-party assets upon which our operations depend and over which we have little or no control;
• the currency exchange rate of the Canadian dollar to the United States dollar;
• inability to recognize current revenue attributable to deficiency payments received from customers who fail to ship or move more than minimum contracted volumes until the related credits expire or are used;
• significant under-utilization of our assets and facilities;
• increased costs, or lack of availability, of insurance;
• fluctuations in the debt and equity markets, including the price of our units at the time of vesting under our long-term incentive plans;
• risks related to the development and operation of our assets;
• the pace of development of natural gas infrastructure and its impact on expected crude oil production growth; and
• other factors and uncertainties inherent in the transportation, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil, as well as in the processing, transportation, fractionation, storage and marketing of NGL as discussed in the Partnerships’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.