Plains All American Pipeline, L PAA

Competitive advantage analysis · energy

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
40/100
Developing

Ranked against 67 peers in Oil & Gas Midstream

About Plains All American Pipeline, L

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., through its subsidiaries, engages in the pipeline transportation, terminaling, storage, and gathering of crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Crude Oil and NGL. The Crude Oil segment offers gathering and transporting crude oil through pipelines, trucks, and on barges or railcars. This … Full PAA analysis →

Key strengths

  • Margins Stable Across Cycles Operating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.97), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.

Key risks

  • Scale Without Profitability Despite scale, profitability lags peers (score 0.09), suggesting limited competitive advantage.
  • Weak or Negative Cash Flow Cash generation is weak (score 0.27), limiting financial flexibility.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Developing
43
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Signals, strengths and risks for Pricing Power

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Signals, strengths and risks for Cost Advantage

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Signals, strengths and risks for Customer Stickiness

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Signals, strengths and risks for Capital Efficiency

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Signals, strengths and risks for Resilience

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Signals, strengths and risks for Scale & Market Position

Where PAA ranks in Oil & Gas Midstream

Plains All American Pipeline, L ranks #41 of 56 scored companies in Oil & Gas Midstream by moat score — the top 73%. The widest moat in the group is Hess Midstream LP (HESM) at 84/100.

# Company Moat score Rating
37 Martin Midstream Partners L.P. MMLP 44/100 Developing
38 Plains GP Holdings, L.P. PAGP 43/100 Developing
39 Enbridge Inc ENB 43/100 Developing
40 Energy Transfer LP ET 41/100 Developing
41 Plains All American Pipeline, L PAA 40/100 Developing
42 Global Partners LP GLP 39/100 Developing
43 Genesis Energy, L.P. GEL 38/100 Developing
44 Golar LNG Limited GLNG 36/100 Developing
45 Kinetik Holdings Inc. KNTK 35/100 Developing

See every Commodities & Mining company ranked by moat score →

How PAA scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 43 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 56 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 32 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 40 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 45 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 20 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding PAA's moat

What is Plains All American Pipeline, L's moat score?

Plains All American Pipeline, L (PAA) scores 40 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #41 of 56 scored companies in Oil & Gas Midstream, the top 73%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 67 companies in Oil & Gas Midstream. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (56/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (20/100).

How does Plains All American Pipeline, L compare with other Oil & Gas Midstream companies?

Plains All American Pipeline, L ranks #41 of 56 scored companies in Oil & Gas Midstream by moat score. The widest moat in Oil & Gas Midstream is Hess Midstream LP (HESM) at 84/100. The companies ranked closest are Energy Transfer LP (ET) at 41 just above it and Global Partners LP (GLP) at 39 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 67 companies in Oil & Gas Midstream. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Plains All American Pipeline, L scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Plains All American Pipeline, L?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and PAA scores: Pricing Power (43), Cost Advantage (56), Customer Stickiness (32), Capital Efficiency (40), Resilience (45), Scale & Market Position (20). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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