Plains All American Earnings Dive as Company Expects $1 Billion in Expansion Capital Investment in 2020

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Like other midstream companies, Plains All American Pipeline LP (NYSE:PAA) (Houston, Texas) suffered in second-quarter 2020. The company reported net income of $142 million, compared with $446 million in the prior-year quarter. Plains again cut planned expansion capital spending for 2020-21 by $100 million, with it expected to be $1.45 billion for both years. In the company's recent earnings conference call, Chief Executive Officer Willie Chiang said Plains invested approximately $650 million in expansion capital in the first half of this year and was expecting spending in the second half to be $350 million, resulting in $1 billion in growth spending this year, followed by $450 million in 2021. Chiang said spending would be lower in 2022 onward.

Chiang discussed some of the company's underway growth projects. Among the largest of these is the Wink-to-Webster crude oil pipeline in Texas, which is a joint venture with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX) (Findlay, Ohio) and others. The 650-mile pipeline will transport up to 1 million barrels per day (BBL/d) of crude oil and condensate from the Permian Basin to connect to multiple locations near the Texas Gulf Coast. Chiang said the companies were targeting an in-service date of second-half 2021 and perhaps partial service in the early second quarter of that year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Other Plains projects include the Diamond crude oil pipeline expansion and extension in Oklahoma. The existing 200,000-BBL/d pipeline will be expanded by an additional 200,000 BBL/d and extended to connect to the Capline Pipeline, a 632-mile pipeline, the flow of which is being reversed so that 300,000 BBL/d of oil moves from Patoka, Illinois, to Saint James, Louisiana. Chiang said the projects should be in service in late 2021. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report on the Diamond Pipeline expansion and click here for a list of projects involving the Capline reversal.

Other projects are planned to start up by the end of this year, including the expansion of the Red River crude oil pipeline in Oklahoma, which entails expanding the existing 150,000-BBL/d pipeline by 100,000 BBL/d to increase the amount of crude oil takeaway from Cushing. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Among Plains' projects that recently began construction is the expansion of its crude oil terminal in Cushing, which involves installing two meter skids and a short amount of 16-inch piping, leaving the manifold to connect to the planned Cushing Connect Pipeline, a 50-mile pipeline that will transport 160,000 BBL/d of crude from the terminal to Holly Energy Partners' (NYSE:HEP) (Dallas, Texas) refining complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Construction on the pipeline is set to be completed next summer. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the terminal expansion and pipeline.

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