Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PAA and PAGP Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question- and- answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Roy Lamoreaux. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Gino. Good afternoon, and welcome to Plains All American Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Today's slide presentation is posted on the Investor Relations website under the News and Events section at plainsallamerican.com, where an audio replay will also be available following today's call. Important disclosures regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures are provided on slide two. A condensed consolidating balance sheet for PAGP and other reference materials are located in the appendix. Today's call will be hosted by Willie Chiang, Chairman and CEO, and Al Swanson, Executive Vice President and CFO. Other members of our team will be available for the Q&A session, including Harry Pefanis, President, Chris Chandler, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Jeremy Goebel, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and Chris Herbold, Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to Willie.
Thank you, Roy, and thanks to everyone for joining our call. Well, what a difference a quarter makes. Since our last earnings call, oil and gas prices are materially higher as global demand returns to pre-pandemic levels, and the markets are increasingly concerned about a supply-demand imbalance. Once again, the Permian appears to be the obvious choice for increasing domestic oil production, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term outlook for our business. In terms of the third quarter, we delivered better than expected Adjusted EBITDA of $519 million, despite some operational challenges at our Fort Saskatchewan fractionation facility, and we continue to execute on a number of our initiatives. We have maintained our 2021 Adjusted EBITDA guidance of ±$2.17 billion.
This is despite an approximately $40 million negative impact of non-recurring and timing-related items, which includes a fire that we experienced at our Fort Saskatchewan facility in late September. Al will discuss the 2021 EBITDA impact related to these items in his prepared comments. With respect to Fort Saskatchewan, while it's unfortunate that this incident occurred, I wanna acknowledge our Canadian team's execution of our emergency response plan and that fortunately no injuries occurred. Our team's been assessing the damaged area and making the appropriate repairs to return capacity to service in the near future. Now let me shift to our 2021 outlook and positioning for 2022, which is summarized on slides three and four.
Notably, we further reduced 2021 investment capital by $50 million and have increased forecasted 2021 free cash flow after distributions by the corresponding amount to ±$1.4 billion. This reflects our continued execution of the goals and initiatives that we outlined at the beginning of the year, which have centered around maximizing free cash flow. Consistent with our plan, we have allocated this free cash flow to reduce debt and to execute our repurchase program, and we have improved our visibility to increase cash return to our equity holders, including prudent distribution growth as leverage approaches our target metrics. Additionally, in October, we closed the Plains Oryx Permian Basin joint venture and are confident in our ability to achieve the JV synergies that we previously identified. In fact, we expect some of the synergies will be recognized earlier in 2022 than anticipated.
An overview of the JV is included in the appendix. With respect to our remaining key projects, the fully contracted Wink to Webster JV pipeline, running from the Permian to the Houston area markets, is scheduled to enter full service around year-end, with committed volume scheduling to begin ramping up in first quarter 2022 and continuing into 2023. Additionally, the NBC-backed Capline JV reversal for southbound service from Patoka to St. James is on track. Line fill from Patoka has commenced, which is expected to be completed in December and is on schedule for January 2022 in service date. Capline's initial throughput is expected to be approximately 100,000 bpd, and the system has adequate capacity to serve growth in Canadian production. Regarding sustainability, we have continued to advance on multiple fronts.
Since publishing our sustainability report in July, we have received positive feedback from investors, and we've seen notable improvements in our ESG scores from a key third-party ESG rating agency. In August, we announced further improvements to our governance, resulting in 100% of Plains directors now being subject to public election. Just last week, we announced the appointment of Dan Nowak to the role of Vice President, Emerging Energy and Process Optimization, and the formation of a cross-functional emerging energy team. Dan has been with Plains for 13 years, most recently as Vice President of Operations for a natural gas storage business. We're taking a very thoughtful and disciplined approach to evaluating a number of opportunities in and around our existing asset base and operations. We look forward to sharing more information as appropriate in the future.
Now let me make some comments about global supply and demand and industry fundamentals that are shown on slide five, and it's further detailed in the appendix. Hydrocarbons are absolutely critical to the global economy. Global demand is recovering to pre-COVID levels, resulting in sustained inventory draws against a multi-year backdrop of reduced upstream investment and a continuation of OPEC discipline. Global energy markets are tight, with storage shortages in traditional energy sources, including natural gas, coal, and crude oil, as evidenced by the increase in most all commodity prices as seasonal heating demand approaches. Global supply chain disruptions are exacerbating product shortages in certain regions and incentivizing increased coal-fired power generation and others. We believe North American energy supply will play a very key role in satisfying global demand, and the Permian is positioned to drive the vast majority of U.S. short cycle production growth.
Permian completion activity has increased since our prior earnings call, reinforcing our confidence in the magnitude of production growth, which could be approximately 2 million bpd in four or five years, assuming no material change in present day producer discipline, capital recycle rates, as well as no significant supply chain impacts. We look forward to providing additional updates in February with the benefit of timely data following the completion of producer budgeting season that's currently underway. We believe that Plains is very well positioned to serve the global call on North American energy supply, which also positions us well to generate significant free cash flow going forward, which is summarized on slide six. With that, I'll turn the call over to Al to cover our third quarter financials, full year guidance, and capital allocation. Al?
Thanks, Willie. An overview of our third quarter results is illustrated on slide seven within the context of our full year guidance and directional estimates for the quarter. Third quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $519 million exceeded our guidance expectations, driven by stronger throughput across our Permian pipeline systems and hub terminals, as well as incremental NGL sales in Canada, partially offset by operating expenses associated with the Fort Saskatchewan incident and a continuation of Supply and Logistics margin compression. Additional detail on our third quarter transportation and facility segment results is summarized on slide eight. Our capitalization and liquidity metrics are provided on slide nine. Total debt decreased approximately $650 million during the quarter and approximately $1 billion since year-end 2020.
As proceeds from the gas storage divestiture were temporarily used to reduce bank debt and commercial paper borrowings. We intend to ultimately use the proceeds to retire the $750 million senior notes due in June 2022 at the March 2022 par call date. Our long-term debt to Adjusted EBITDA ratio was 3.8x at quarter end. It remains above the high end of our target range and reinforces our commitment to further reduce debt. Slide 10 provides a recap of our capital allocation plans for the year, including a summary of the equity repurchase activity we have completed since we implemented the plan last November. In total, we have repurchased 18.1 million PAA common units for $167 million with $64 million repurchased in the third quarter.
As Willie mentioned and is detailed on slide 11, we have further reduced 2021 investment capital and continue to expect an annual run rate to range between $200 million and $300 million. As detailed on slide 12, we maintain our 2021 Adjusted EBITDA guidance of ±$2.175 billion, reflecting third quarter transportation segment overperformance, offset by an estimated $25 million impact from the Fort Saskatchewan incident, in addition to approximately $15 million in timing-related items comprised of Wink to Webster entering full service roughly two months later than we had previously forecasted, and an MVC deficiency timing shift into the first quarter of 2022.
I would also note that 2021 guidance does not incorporate the Plains Oryx Permian Basin JV, as we do not expect the JV to have a material incremental net EBITDA impact on our full year 2021 result, which is consistent with our discussion on our JV announcement conference call. Slide 13 sets our November guidance into the context relative to our initial 2021 guidance furnished in February and illustrates the most notable drivers to date and expected through year-end. Acknowledging the significant degree to which the margin-based earnings reported within our F&L segment have continued to evolve over the past several years, we are currently reviewing our reporting segments to ensure alignment with our current and future operating decisions as well as the competitive environment in which we operate.
If through this review we determine a segment change is warranted, we intend to incorporate this change within our fourth quarter earnings release, our 2022 financial and operating guidance, and our 2021 10-K. With that, I'll turn the call back to Willie.
Thanks, Al. Our third quarter results reflect continued execution of our plan. We've made progress reinforcing our balance sheet and divesting non-core assets at attractive multiples while exercising strong capital discipline and preserving our most notable strengths. We have an integrated wellhead to market asset base and business model, strong alignment with customers and partners throughout the industry value chain. We have strategic positioning in key U.S. and Canadian producing regions, demand centers, and export outlets. We have a leading Permian franchise with significant operating leverage, and we have investment-grade credit ratings. As we look forward, this positions us to generate significant positive free cash flow for years to come, benefiting from improved global fundamentals and a growing Permian Basin. Owners of PAA and PAGP are positioned to benefit from this growth through our commitment to increasing cash return to equity holders over time.
With that, I will turn the call over to Roy, who will lead us into Q&A.
Thanks, Willie. Prior to opening the call to Q&A, I would mention the summary of our 2021 goals and key takeaways from today's call are provided on slides 14 and 15. As we enter the Q&A session, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question, and then we'll return to the queue if you have additional follow-ups. This will allow us to address the top questions from as many participants as practical in our available time this afternoon. Additionally, our IR team plans to be available throughout the week to address additional questions. Sheena, we're now ready to open the call for questions.
All right. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Again, that is star one on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. We do have a question from Michael Blum from Wells Fargo. The line is now open.
Thanks. Good afternoon, everybody. I had a question on M&A, really on the asset divestiture side. Obviously, you guys have been pretty aggressive over the last few years, I'd say, on that front. Do you think you're effectively done after this year, or do you see continued asset divestitures in 2022 and beyond?
Hey, Michael, this is Willie. Thanks for the question. I appreciate the acknowledgment that we have been aggressive in optimizing our portfolio through sales. You know, we've completed $4.5 billion worth of asset sales in the last number of years. We think we're probably at the end of the significant asset sales. However, we continue to look at all kinds of opportunities. You know, we believe in the efforts of continuous improvement. We always look to see if assets are worth more to others, and there's a win-win there. At this point in time, we do not anticipate announcing a formal asset disposition program for 2022. Hopefully, that helps.
Yep, that helps. Thank you. Maybe on a related note, any updates you can provide in terms of efforts to either repurpose or rationalize pipeline capacity out of the Permian? I know, you know, you're seeing strong Permian volume growth, but there is still a decent amount of excess capacity. Thanks.
Yeah. I'm gonna let Jeremy address this, but I do wanna make a comment. I think we've proven ourselves that, as far as repurposing and optimization, and I'll just point out that both, Wink to Webster, the project is a result of, consolidation and rationalization of a number of shippers. If you think about our repurposing of Capline, and reversing it, from an idle line to a line that's gonna go in service, it's completely in our playbook. But I'll let Jeremy talk about the Permian and our thoughts.
Hey, Michael, this is Jeremy Goebel. The industry as a whole, so not just Plains, all the large owners of pipeline are looking at it. Some projects make more sense than others. At this time, nothing's been announced, but I would tell you that everyone wants that to happen. The counter to that is you're also gonna look at supply and demand and based on production growth. I think it's something we continue to look at. We'll look at with other partners. We'll look for rationalization and cost reductions across the system. We'll look for repurposing assets. A lot of that's new. Some of the potential alternatives that Dan is looking at in our in the group, in Chris's group, Dan Nowak that Willie announced, he's gonna look at potential projects.
I think we're early in the process at some of the, those. The industry is looking at gas conversions, refined products conversions, all kinds, not just in the Permian, but across the system. I think stay tuned, but this is something that it's gonna take time. It's gonna take industry partners to make that work, and we're aware of it. We're gonna keep looking at it, but no update at this time.
Thank you.
Thanks, Michael.
Next one on the queue is Shneur Gershuni from UBS Investment Bank. Your line is now open.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Maybe to start off, there have been a lot of comments throughout this earnings season about, you know, positive developments in the Permian from a production perspective. Some of the majors were talking about more volumes. You know, you have a slide on that as well also. You know, with the JV in place now with Oryx, do you feel that Plains is better able to capitalize on this growth? Are you able to give us a little bit more color than you were able to give at the time of the announcement?
Again, I'll ask Jeremy to comment on this. You know, the whole purpose we did the Oryx JV is if you think about back to rationalization and trying to be capital efficient. You know, we think that was clearly a win-win-win, right? Win for Oryx, win for us, and win for customers in putting that together. Everything we've done around the Permian is really focused around how do we build that integrated value chain from wellhead all the way to markets. With the ability for us to first purchase, we think that really gives us a differentiated view of the Permian. Short answer is, I think it's absolutely key to additionally building out our system in the Permian.
I don't know if Jeremy, you have any other comments you wanna make about it?
Shneur, we just closed about a month ago. What I would say is, transitions gone very smooth. Objective number one is turn the pipeline over safely, continue operations and service existing customers. That process is all going very well. I'd say, you've already seen capital rationalization, our ability to defer or eliminate, whether it's expansions of our system or putting new connections in place. I think we're seeing some of those. On the cost side, we're rationalizing there. Commercially, we're approaching this now we're finally allowed to jointly approach our large customers and our smaller customers. We've canvassed all the customers, and they're generally very excited about Plains taking over operatorship. We're looking for long-term solutions, extensions of contracts, a very stable long-term cash flow from this asset.
Initial results are positive, and we're gonna continue to drive for that. Just on the intrabasin movements alone, we're looking to take this system, which has got expanded reliability, quality control, and connectivity, and create long-term partnerships with our customers. That's where the focus has been, and it's going very well.
Oh, great. Really appreciate that. Maybe as a follow-up question here. It seems you purchased about 64 million units during the quarter or 160 million since the authorization was in place. You've reduced your units outstanding by, on my math, about 2.5%. Your free cash flow after dividend is actually increasing based on your guide. I know the formula is up to 25%. You've reiterated that in the past. Even if I take into account, you know, asset sale adjustment and related debt reduction, it sort of suggests that you've got about $150 million worth of capacity into year-end. Do you expect that to still be a part of the plan? Is that the expectation that the board likely has for next year, that you'll have a similar up to 25% view in terms of returning capital to unit holders?
Well, Shneur, I think we've demonstrated that we are definitely executing against the plan. You know, we've got a slide somewhere in the presentation that kind of talks about all of the conditions that we look at, including, you know, outlook, value of the units, the yield of the units. We intend to continue to buy. I don't think we're gonna be specific about how much, when, or where. But that's clearly continues to be part of the capital allocation plan, along with the primary piece going to debt reduction. Al, you wanna add anything to that?
Yeah. No, I would echo that. Clearly, we have tried to articulate that the math formula is to come up with a limit. Primary focus is to try to manage our leverage in the very near term, as Willie mentioned. Clearly, we're still running above it. But we thought we could do it in a balanced way to implement some repurchases in the meantime. We would plan to probably provide commentary on, you know, those percentages or the free cash flow allocation for 2022 on the February call.
All right. Perfect. Thank you very much. Appreciate the color today.
Hey, Shneur, I wanted to add one thing to Jeremy's comments on the Oryx JV. We can't give you a lot of details right now because we're just kind of in the midst of transition, a successful transition moving forward. I will highlight that as we announced when we announced the deal, there's a lot of acreage dedication that anchors volumes there. I also wanna compliment Jeremy's team and Brett Wiggs' team as we've gotten together. You know, there's a lot of excitement anytime you get two good teams working together. I do think you know, we're gonna continue to make progress, and we'll be able to share more on the next call.
No, I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Next one on the queue is Jeremy Tonet from J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open.
Hi, good afternoon.
Hi, Jeremy.
Just a couple of high-level macro questions, if I could. Just wondering, you know, about Cushing operations. We've seen, you know, inventories really, you know, reaching these very low levels. Do you see an impact on the market here as this continues to drain? Do you see a reversal of this at any point? Just wondering if you could talk about, I guess, what impacts this could have on the crude oil market as a whole and exports as well.
Jeremy? Our Jeremy, you wanna talk about that?
Hey, Jeremy. How are you?
Good.
Hey, so Cushing inventory. It's been declining since COVID, right? This has been a long decline, and it accelerated recently. What that does is it just creates a situation with steep backwardation, and it tightens Brent and WTI, right? The thing about that is that the scarcity of availability for crude price. That creates a demand at Cushing for net barrels as opposed to blended, settled barrels of the NYMEX. Think about that. It could pull additional barrels from different regions in the Permian for operating. It ebbs and flows, right? That's gonna be a pull away from exports. This is not something. When everyone said that basin's gonna completely dry up, that doesn't always happen. This is something that's cyclical.
Parts of it, the pull towards the water will move barrels that way. Right now you've got a pull towards Cushing just because you've got limited inventory, so that's moving barrels in that direction. ARBS get solved, right? If there's a pull towards Cushing, barrels flow to Cushing, pull to the water. Crude markets are just not static, and that'll impact refiners' margins. This is. It's not a simple yes or no answer. I would just say that as the inventories decline, there's less barrels to physically settle contracts. It's gonna pull more net barrels from different basins. As in production growth in the Rockies or the Mid-Continent, that's gonna pull barrels from the Permian Basin. It's one way to think about that.
Jeremy, Cushing remains a very key hub, right? We think it continues to remain a very key hub going forward.
Got it. That's helpful. Thanks. Oh, sorry.
Operationally, those barrels are needed, and those terminals that are most connected to supply sources and distribution sources will continue to operate and be profitable in spite of a steeply backwardated market that's against storage.
I will tell you that we are seeing some pressure on margin or on recontracting on the Cushing storage. That may be a factor of the lower tank usage today.
Got it. That's helpful. Thanks. Thinking about the Permian and the levels of growth that you outlined there, you know, potentially getting pretty strong in the coming years here, you know, just wondering how you think bottlenecks in the basin could emerge and not on the crude oil side, but on the natural gas side. Just curious if you think that could be something of a speed bump a couple year down the road as far as natural gas takeaway needs and new pipeline needed for that and whether that could slow down crude oil production.
Well, I think back to what our Jeremy was talking about on rationalization and optimization within the basin, I think there's a lot yet to be played out. You know, if you do look at the constraints, natural gas is probably one of the first constraints you hit with the growth in the production. If you compound that with the desire for an industry to not flare as much, it puts a little additional pressure on that. I think there's a lot yet to come on opportunities to optimize hopefully within existing pipes, and that's you know more to come as we go forward.
Jeremy, this is Jeremy. The way I look at it is there's gonna be a few constraints, right? Labor, pressure pumping, other type of supply constraints on the service side. Gas is one that, depending on your production forecast, 2023 and 2024. On the negative side, from a flowing barrels, well, that's a positive side I would say for the industry as a whole. There's a resistance to flaring now, which is, I think, positive from an ESG perspective, but it could constrain production. We've seen it at times, processing plants go down or other things in the field. I think the industry is getting better at thinking more forward and solving those issues and taking capacity out of the basin to do it.
I think the gas issue does get solved and everyone's aware of it, and there's three projects out there chasing it. I think whether that happens or a conversion happens, I think that one gets solved. More right in front of us is the labor thing, labor issue that's affecting all markets, and then potentially the lack of maintenance on service equipment. I think those are the negatives. I think on the positive side, what we're seeing from a growth standpoint is less activity and more accomplishment on the gathering side. The desire to reduce methane emissions is gonna have fewer connections, bigger connections, very efficient operations on the gas, crude, and water side. I think you're gonna see the industry move to more efficient, less potential emissions points, which is good for our capital going into the ground.
It's less capital to get more barrels to the system. I think you're gonna see some negatives and positives come out of this, but I think all in all, we're gonna work. The industry will solve these issues.
It does reinforce the need for all parts of the value chain to work together. You know, if you think about efficient value chains, you know, I think global situation's gonna force that upon us. You know, we were in the pure growth mode where everybody was growing. Now as we have a little bit of a check step, this efficiency mode or optimization is gonna play out with more and more players.
Got it. Thank you, Jeremy and Willie.
Thank you, Jeremy.
Next one on the queue is, Jean Ann Salisbury from Bernstein Research. Your line is now open.
Hi, good evening. What share of EBITDA roughly is linked to PPI or some other inflation index? Do you anticipate that if costs go up less than that, this could provide a material benefit over the next 12 months, or should I not get too excited about that?
Yeah, generally speaking, I would tell you we have, we would expect to be able to offset cost increases with with our escalators. There may be some timing issues there. I don't know if anyone wants to offer any more detail.
Yeah. Jean Ann, this is Jeremy. The way you look at it is some of the longer-term contracts have, including the acreage dedications in the Permian are exposed. Some of them have caps. A lot of the producers recognizing this. Caps could be in the range of 3%-3.5%. Some of them have banking, some of them don't. Yes, we are absolutely exposed. That will be incorporated in our guidance when we have a better view in February. But I would say we're monitoring it, we're paying attention. It should more than offset the cost, but it's something that we'll give you a better sense for what that impact is. 'Cause some movements, like spot movements, won't be impacted by that. It's not take all of it.
We will be exposed to that. I would just say, let us give you some guidance in February once we have a better sense for what that looks like and what volumes on different pipes will look like.
Jeremy, do you mind just confirming what you mean by exposed?
We have escalators. Exposed just means we have escalators attached to it. There's an opportunity for exposure to escalation. You're also exposed to cost, but lower capital budget, higher revenue exposure should be directionally positive, but we'll give more guidance in the spring or in February.
Jean Ann, did that answer your question?
Yes. It did. It sounds moderately positive, so appreciate that. As my follow-up, congrats on getting the Capline reversal done. On that 100,000 that's flowing now, are you able to say roughly how much is coming from Canadian crude versus U.S.? And kind of talk about what you would need to see for that number to go up. Is it just kind of more production in the Bakken and in Canada? Or are there kind of specific third-party projects or expansions that could lead to Capline getting more crude for the next year or two?
Well, there's never an easy answer to this, but I'll let Jeremy give it his best shot here.
Jean Ann, I'd say to your first question, we would expect it to be 100% Canadian crude. To your second question, I think there's a number of projects potentially restructuring how crude gets across the Canadian border and what markets it goes to. Once there's clarity with Enbridge and its shippers and TransCanada and its shippers, I think we'll see how many barrels flow to Patoka and the potential to expand it. We definitely think there's opportunities to increase from where it is today, but there needs to be certainty of which barrels end up in Patoka and who has shipper history to get there.
That's very helpful. Cool. That's all for me. Thank you.
Shipper rights. That's great.
Thanks, Jean Ann.
Next one on the queue is Colton Bean from Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Your line is now open.
Great. First, just wanted to follow up on Willie's comment around lower storage rates at Cushing. Any rough sense as to volumes rolling over the next year or two and just general exposure there?
Jeremy?
I'd say we actively manage it, so it's staggered over time and obviously the further out you get. I think the near-term uncertainty is less. We're just putting it out there that, hey, there is some exposure. It's not like—It's nowhere near 100% of the contracts. It's, you know, generally, for our facilities, they're highly contracted assets, and for the next twelve months, they'll be highly contracted assets. We're just making people aware that lower inventories does put pressure on whether it's spot movements or there's no contango opportunities around there. Some of that is more of the opportunistic storage that us and our customers experience won't be there, so it's gonna be limited to throughput and storage rates. Incremental successive storage rates will be at lower rates than historical ones. There's no near-term cliff.
It's not like Cushing's gonna be fully exposed next year. It's a much smaller portion of that. It's just something we're pointing out that backwardated markets make it tougher on facilities. Operationally, you're running with no cushion, right? You're running at bottoms in the system.
Got it. Maybe switching back to Capline. You mentioned, you know, needing to know how many volumes show up in Patoka. Is that kind of the preferred option now is seeing what producers and refiners are looking at, or is there any opportunity to structure a bundled rate all the way from Alberta?
I think there's always opportunities, but I think the key thing now is Enbridge is trying to understand what the rules are, right? To how they agree on what it is. In the future, certainly to have a joint rate. I think near term, getting it there and having a rate across, I think they just want certainty where the barrels will end. We've had discussions with all the longer term carriers, but I think the uncertainty of what the structure looks like and what they can offer is prescient relative to adding additional joint tariffs with third parties.
You know, Colton, the comment I would make, this is Willie again, is if you think about the longer picture, there's always gonna be abnormalities over periods of time, whether or not you're gonna be up in a backwardated market, contango markets. If you think about the production profile and what we believe to be the energy demand that's gonna be needed in the world, long term, barrels are gonna flow to the water. It may be a quarter, two quarters, three quarters away, but as constraints gets fixed, efficient paths to markets ultimately get filled. That's what we believe in, and that's what we're planning for.
Got it. Thank you.
Next one on the queue is Chase Mulvehill from Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Hey. So just wanted to come back to a lot of questioning around the Permian. I think last quarter, on the conference call, you know, you guys talked about kind of stabilization of Permian oil volumes kind of in the near term, and really didn't expect much growth until you got to around, you know, the mid part of next year. So if I missed it, I'll apologize, but could you kind of update us on kind of your view of Permian oil volumes over the near term and do you expect those to grow now just given the higher oil price?
Yeah. Chase, we probably would rather give a much better update after we hear what all the producers are going to be doing. You're correct in that on our last earnings call, we had a lower rate that we thought the year would end at. I think because of the increased completions, I mean, it's stepped up. Clearly it's higher. I think the trajectory is probably similar, where it's gonna be flatter and then rise in 2022. Jeremy, you wanna add to that?
Chase, we had the last call in May, and I'd say July and August were strong months for completion. Our 45-46 has moved to 48-49, which is more in line with consensus. In August, we were just starting to see that wave, and then now we're seeing that continue. I think you're always gonna see towards the end of the year, as people make sure they hit their capital budgets, a bit of a slowdown, but usually it ramps up in the first part of next year when capital budgets are reloaded. I think from a shape perspective, it'll continue to grind higher.
I'd say, Drilled and Uncompleted wells, when that inventory continues to get exhausted, you're gonna need to see rigs show up to sustain growth. We'd expect to see some of that in the first quarter of next year. Without giving specific guidance, the way to think about it is the private operators continue to add completion crews and rigs, as you've seen and the industry has seen. I think your large and mid-size independents are largely holding the line, even at $80 oil. I don't know if third-party pressure, whether it be from the government or investors started looking for growth at those levels because the returns are high, but they're holding the line. We're also seeing the integrated start to look to step out to potentially add activity.
It's not a perfect picture right now, but we have a good sense for what's happening. We'll have a better one in February. If I were to give you a qualitative answer to what's gonna drive growth, right now it looks like the integrated will start to step up activity and the privates will drive growth. You'll see allocations of capital. That'll be important. Do people allocate capital to other basins at the higher prices since they do work at these prices, or do they stay within the Permian and let those decline? I think these are all things that'll bear out between now and February.
All right. Yeah, that's helpful. I mean, we're pretty bullish on the oilfield service over here. We're pretty bullish on activity levels in 2022. All right. Quick follow-up question. You know, there's a lot of questioning around kind of Cushing, and I guess maybe I have a question on inventories. Obviously, inventories are below five-year averages or even five-year lows for this time of year. Obviously, you know, global oil supply-demand dynamics are pretty tight with OPEC still holding crude off the market when we probably need more at this point. As we kind of move into 2022, you know, balance is probably at least kind of balance out a little bit.
You know, maybe they may be a little bit oversupplied depending on kind of what happens with Iran and some other things. When you think about that and things kind of moving from, you know, being significantly undersupplied to more balanced, you know, you might start filling Cushing again on the inventory side. When that happens, where do you think those barrels actually come from? If they're coming from the Permian, just kind of help us understand, you know, the operating leverage you would have as those barrels, you know, come back into Cushing if they come from the Permian.
Sure. I think where they come from is, once again, gonna depend on the capital allocation to the Rockies Mid-Continent. Absent growth in those markets, in Canada you're gonna have some from the Line 3 expansion. Absent that, you're gonna see, if you see continued increased refining runs, you're gonna need to pull on the Permian to supply those 'cause inventory isn't supplied. Basin and Sunrise would be our primary exposure there, the uncontracted portions of it. You've seen throughout different quarters this year when there is a pull, when Canadian upgraders are down or when the balances pull like they are today, you'll see exposure from the Basin corridor, and that's a pull-through from the gathering system to on Sunrise and Basin. I'd say that's the primary leverage.
Then anytime there's throughput in a terminal, there's additional fees and terms associated with that in the Cushing markets as well. That's where you would see that. We do agree with you that if demand continues to grow at this pace and there's no additional offsets from COVID, demand will outstrip supply, and that should drive additional rigs and allocation of capital to the Permian because you'd have to think at this point, there's probably higher discount rates and steep backwardation associated with longer dated projects. It probably pulls capital into short cycle projects. You probably see even more waiting with the guys who have other options. We do agree with you that that could happen, but forecasting, that's pretty difficult from where we sit right now. We will have a better sense in February.
Okay, thanks.
Hey, Chase, one thing to add to that. I'll just wanna give you perspective of our system that we have in the Permian. You know, if you think about our gathering intrabasin and long-haul lines, we have access to multiple markets. As Jeremy described what was happening in the flexibility in basin, if the arb supports moving barrels to the coast, they go to the coast. If the arb supports going to Cushing, we have the flexibility to get volumes in basin going up to Cushing. What it does do is a lot of the volumes that we have going to the coast are supported by minimum volume commitments.
A person can opt to send that up to Cushing, which we would get the benefit of the tariff, and we would then have a little bit more noise on the transportation side on if a barrel didn't flow, we still get paid. There'll be some deficiency payments. I just wanted to reinforce it's a benefit of the system that we have in that we have multiple outlets that we could get some benefit from.
Makes sense. All righty. I'll turn it back over. Thanks for the color.
Thanks.
For the next question, we do have Becca Followill from U.S. Capital Advisors. Your line is now open.
Good afternoon. You guys talked a little bit about that you're evaluating SNL and your reporting mechanisms. If you choose to fold that into other segments, is there any other visibility that you're maybe considering in terms of maybe providing additional information on Canada or other segment reporting?
I'm gonna let Al Swanson address that, Becca.
Yeah. We're gonna take a look at what we think the right reporting would be, structure, Becca. If we do decide to make a change, which we haven't yet, we'll come out with that in February. I think it's premature to try to speculate on potential changes, especially when we haven't decided for sure that we're gonna make any.
Can we put in requests in the meantime?
Our IR team is available.
Yeah.
for phone calls after the conference call always. Roy?
Thank you.
Clearly, as you
Bring it on, Becca. Bring it on.
As you know, I mean, the report, the segment reporting structure needs to mirror kind of how we are managing the business. There's some very particular rules around that we have to keep in mind as well.
Gotcha. Thank you. I don't know if you talked about it earlier in the prepared remarks. I apologize if you did. The $200 million asset impairment, what was that for?
Al, you wanna cover that?
Yeah. It was our remaining terminal out on the East Coast at Yorktown.
Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Becca.
All right. There are no further question on the queue. I will now turn the call over back to the presenters.
Well, once again, we thank you for your continued interest in support of Plains. We look forward to giving you more updates as we go forward. Please stay safe, and I will say, go Astros. Thank you very much.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.