Plains Midstream Canada Acquires BP's Canadian Natural Gas Liquids Business

Plains Midstream Canada ULC (“Plains Midstream Canada”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (“Plains”), completed the acquisition of BP Plc's (“BP”) Canadian natural gas liquids business for $1.67 billion, thereby expanding its footprint in Canada and gaining the opportunity to increase its operations in the US.

The business includes 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) of pipelines, 21 million barrels of storage capacity, and three fractionation plants. The purchase adds to Plains's 16,000 miles of pipeline and makes it one of the largest natural gas liquids service providers in North America. The location of the pipelines and plants will allow Plains to process gas from US formations including the Bakken in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. This transaction allows Plains to dramatically increase its presence in the natural gas liquids and liquefied petroleum gas businesses while bringing BP closer to its goal of raising almost $40 billion through asset sales.

Plains's business activities include crude oil transportation, gathering, marketing, terminalling and storage as well as marketing and storage of liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products. They conduct business in over 40 US states and in five Canadian provinces.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies and is headquartered in London, UK.

Plains was represented by Richard McGee, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Plains, and Michael Callihoo and Tracy Hall, Legal Counsel, of Plains Midstream Canada, and by Bennett Jones LLP with a team led by Don Greenfield, QC, (energy M&A and Investment Canada) and including Vivek Warrier (energy M&A); Beth Riley (competition); Michael Whitt (IP); John Batzel (employment); Yun Zhu (energy); Karen Beattie (regulatory); Blake Williams (regulatory); Chelsea Nickles (energy) and Robert Bodnar (energy). Ken Skingle, QC, as well as Siobhan Goguen from Felesky Flynn LLP represented Plains Midstream Canada as tax counsel.

BP was represented by Brian Selinger, Managing Counsel, Canada Region, Fiona Cross, Managing Attorney, IST Legal – Calgary; and Jenelle Matsalla, Counsel, Canada Region, and by Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Calgary with a team that was led by Michael Hurst (energy M&A) and included Dale Skinner (M&A); Barry Zalmanowitz and Sandy Walker (regulatory); George Antonopoulos (energy M&A); Steven London (commercial); Ryan Exon (commercial) and Alex MacWilliam (environmental).