Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NASDAQ:PAA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: This is Brian Reddy [ph] on for Jeremy. I think it’s been hit on a couple of times in the call already but just to clarify, are you guys able to disclose what part of the guidance raise is attributable to the base business strength, given that you guys had already pointed the high in last quarter versus the incremental contribution for the bolt-on acquisitions?

Jeremy Goebel: Sure. This is Jeremy. It’s roughly $10 million to $15 million from the acquisitions.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, perfect. And then for the second one, last quarter, you talked about Canadian optimization opportunities and maybe utilizing some of that underutilized capacity at Sarnia. So curious to hear updated thoughts here and what you guys are seeing in terms of low capital, smaller growth optimization opportunities.

Willie Chiang: Yes, I’ll take a stab at that. I mean, I think as we shared last call, our East West system together has been — it gives us an advantage because we’ve got spare capacity in the East and that was a key part of our ability to be able to move quickly on our debottleneck in the West. So we continue to work on a lot of need opportunities around optimization, both of our Empress compact sport SaaS and Sarnia. And I think the thing to take away from it is no big announcements on projects other than what we’ve already announced but there’s clearly capacity there that we can continue to optimize and utilize without having to put greenfield projects in.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Neal Dingmann with Truist Securities.

Neal Dingmann: Just one first quick one. Could you just give an update? I think you’ve talked about this in the past, just on the minimum volume commitments where you stand there and kind of as you enter ’24, how those sit?

Willie Chiang: I’m not sure I understand the question. Can you repeat it?

Neal Dingmann: Yes, just on the long haul, yes, sir.

Jeremy Goebel: Sure. What I would say is we continue to have constructive dialogues with the customers. Nothing to highlight at this point. Enterprise announcement is obviously additive to that equation and market dynamics are such that with the continued acquisitions, enhancing relationships with customers, we feel we’re in a good place and we’ll give you guys an update when it’s appropriate. We do believe in the basin long term in these acquisitions and improved recoveries should all support that ongoing growth through the decade and continued contracting in the pipelines.

Neal Dingmann: Great. And then just on a second, could you give the latest on the continued Canadian opportunities such as in Edmonton or Ontario around like that NGL extraction plant sites or some other things you have?

Jeremy Goebel: Sure. Broadly in Canada around the NGL system, I think the opportunities you’re going to see is the — task is constrained the opportunity for East-West movements and higher margins and other things to purchase additional NGLs. There are opportunities throughout next year that we’ll see, I don’t know if that’s what you’re asking for but it seems to me that there are margin enhancement opportunities around the system and we’ll look to use our system to capture them.

Willie Chiang: Yes. Neal, the other thing I would add is as we think about our Canadian footprint — we’re very bullish on Western Canadian gas production. So as that increases and there’s additional takeaway to the West Coast, we think it encourages additional production. And that gives us the opportunity to be able to capture more NGLs out of a wet stream.

Neal Dingmann: Great detail. That’s exactly I was looking for.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Next question comes from Sunil Sibal with Seaport Global.

Sunil Sibal: Thanks for all the clarity on the call. So just wanted to understand some of the dynamics on the EBITDA guidance increase. So it seems like from what you’ve indicated $10 million to $15 million impact of bolt-on acquisitions and at the same time, you’re reducing your volume expectation so is it fair to assume your unit margins are going up? And then any significant driver of that? Obviously, tariffs are increasing but that was probably well known.

Al Swanson: Yes, I’ll take a shot at it. This is Al. In the crude side, we have seen and are expecting more favorable market-based opportunities, we’ve seen over the year, higher movements into and out of Cushing. Our non-Permian assets have performed well and then clearly the contribution from the acquisitions. In the NGL segment, we’ve seen benefit from higher, better improved NGL yields. This is likely temporary in the AECO gas stream as well as more attractive differentials West to East, as Jeremy mentioned. So those are really the things that are kind of driving it.

Jeremy Goebel: One thing to note, though, on the — we view the Permian reduction as transitory. This is building momentum into the fourth quarter and into next year. So the view that it slowed down our expectations long term a slowdown if not, this is a function of transitory timing.

Sunil Sibal: Understood. And then on the pipeline loss alone with all the recent acquisitions that you’ve done, could you remind us what is your total explore on crude with the pipeline loss alone?

Blake Fernandez: Sunil, it’s Blake. Historically, what we’ve said is 2 million to 3 million barrels we haven’t provided an update to that. I think it’s correct to think as more volumes ultimately make their way into the system. That could increase over time and we’ll give an update when appropriate.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of John Mackay with Goldman Sachs.