We own and operate a diversified portfolio of strategically located assets that play a vital role in the movement of U.S. and Canadian energy supplies.   On average we handle over 3 million barrels per day of crude oil, refined products and LPG through our extensive network of assets located in key North American producing basins and transportation gateways.   We are headquartered in Houston, Texas, and our common units are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PAA."  

Our operations can be categorized into three primary business activities:
 

Our facilities segment also includes our natural gas storage assets. As of September 2009 we owned and operated approximately 40 billion cubic feet of underground natural gas storage capacity which does not include approximately 2 Bcf of storage capacity leased from third parties.
 

As of December 31, 2008, we owned and employed a variety of long-term physical assets throughout the United States and Canada in this segment, including: 

• ~55 million barrels of crude oil and refined products capacity primarily at our terminalling and storage locations;
• ~6 million barrels of LPG storage capacity; and 
• a fractionation plant in Canada with a processing capacity of 4,400 barrels per day, and a fractionation and isomerization facility in California with an aggregate processing capacity of 22,500 barrels per day.

At year-end 2008, we were in the process of constructing approximately 5 million barrels of additional above-ground crude oil and refined product terminalling and storage facilities.

Marketing — Our marketing segment operations generally consist of the following merchant activities:

• the purchase of U.S. and Canadian crude oil at the wellhead and the bulk purchase of crude oil at pipeline and terminal facilities, as well as the purchase of foreign cargoes at their load port and various other locations in transit;
• the storage of inventory during contango market conditions and the seasonal storage of LPG;
• the purchase of refined products and LPG from producers, refiners and other marketers;
• the resale or exchange of crude oil, refined products and LPG at various points along the distribution chain to refiners or other resellers to maximize profits; and
• the transportation of crude oil, refined products and LPG on trucks, barges, railcars, pipelines and ocean-going vessels to our terminals and third-party terminals.

We believe our marketing activities are counter-cyclically balanced to produce a stable baseline of results in a variety of market conditions, while at the same time providing upside potential associated with opportunities inherent in volatile market conditions. These activities utilize storage facilities at major interchange and terminalling locations and various hedging strategies to provide a countercyclical balance. The tankage that is used to support our arbitrage activities positions us to capture margins in a contango market (when the oil prices for future deliveries are higher than the current prices) or when the market switches from contango to backwardation (when the oil prices for future deliveries are lower than the current prices). 

Except for pre-defined inventory positions, our policy is generally (i) to purchase only product for which we have a market, (ii) to structure our sales contracts so that price fluctuations do not materially affect the segment profit we receive, and (iii) not to acquire and hold physical inventory, futures contracts or other derivative products for the purpose of speculating on outright commodity price changes. 

In addition to substantial working inventories associated with its merchant activities, as of December 31, 2008, our marketing segment also owned significant volumes of crude oil and LPG classified as long-term assets for linefill or minimum inventory requirements under service arrangements with transportation carriers and terminalling providers. The marketing segment also employs a variety of owned or leased physical assets throughout the United States and Canada, including approximately:

• 8 million barrels of crude oil and LPG linefill in pipelines owned by us;
• 2 million barrels of crude oil and LPG linefill in pipelines owned by third parties and other long-term inventory;
• 528 trucks and 631 trailers; and
• 1,697 railcars.

In connection with its operations, the marketing segment secures transportation and facilities services from our other two segments as well as third-party service providers under month-to-month and multi-year arrangements. Intersegment sales are based on posted tariff rates, rates similar to those charged to third parties or rates that we believe approximate market rates. However, certain terminalling and storage rates recognized within our facilities segment are discounted to our marketing segment to reflect the fact that these services may be canceled on short notice to enable the facilities segment to provide services to third parties.

We purchase crude oil and LPG from multiple producers and believe that we have established long-term, broad-based relationships with the crude oil and LPG producers in our areas of operations. Marketing activities involve relatively large volumes of transactions, often with lower overall margins than transportation and facilities operations. Marketing activities for LPG typically consist of smaller volumes per transaction relative to crude oil.