Plains GP Holdings, L.P. is an energy-infrastructure holding company based in Houston, Texas, built to provide public investors an ownership stake in the Plains midstream enterprise.
Structurally, the company’s purpose is to control and hold interests in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (PAA)—including an indirect, non-economic controlling general partner interest and an indirect limited partner interest. In practical terms, PAGP functions as the control entity over PAA and consolidates PAA’s operating results through that ownership structure.
The operating engine underneath that structure is PAA’s midstream network, which is organized around three core lines of business: Transportation, Facilities, and Supply and Logistics. These segments reflect the company’s focus on moving hydrocarbons, operating terminals and storage, and providing related logistics and market services that connect production regions with end markets.
Within crude oil, Plains describes its operations as gathering and transporting crude oil via pipelines, gathering systems, trucks, and at times barges or railcars, supported by associated storage and terminal infrastructure. Across its broader footprint, Plains’ activities commonly span transportation, storage, terminalling, and marketing of crude oil and refined products, alongside natural gas liquids-related services.
Taken together, Plains GP Holdings offers exposure to a large-scale North American midstream platform where value is driven by infrastructure utilization and logistics demand—how much volume needs to be gathered, stored, and transported, and how efficiently those flows can reach key hubs and export corridors. That makes the business less about drilling and more about operating the networks that keep commodities moving from where they’re produced to where they’re processed, stored, or consumed.