Plains All American Pipeline under investigation by law firm

The Shuman Law Firm announces that it is investigating potential claims against certain officers and directors of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (PAA). PAA is a Houston, TX-based company that engages in the transportation, storage, terminalling, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), natural gas, and refined products in the US and Canada.

The Shuman firm’s investigation concerns whether certain current and/or former senior officers and directors of PAA breached their fiduciary duties to the company by allegedly causing the company to fail to disclose the lack of integrity concerning the company’s pipeline operations as well as their lack of compliance with federal safety regulations.

The lawsuit

A class action lawsuit filed against the company and certain senior executives alleges that senior PAA executives characterised PAA’s safety compliance efforts for the Line 901 pipeline off the coast of California as “state of the art” with an oil spill being qualified as “extremely unlikely.” Despite these assurances, on 19 May 2015, Line 901 ruptured but was dismissed to be a small spill according to PAA executives, estimating 2400 bbls being released into the federally protected and environmentally sensitive Pacific coastline. However, on 5 August 2015, PAA announced that the extent of the spill was much greater than initially estimated, and that the US Department of Justice had initiated a criminal investigation into the spill.

Falling stock price

Following the 5 August 2015 disclosure, the company’s stock price immediately fell more than 27% from US$49.59 per share on 19 May 2015 (before the spill) to a closing price of US$35.95 per share on 5 August 2015. The company’s stock price has not rebounded and currently trades for under US$20.00 per share.

Edited from source by Stephanie Roker

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/26012016/plains-all-american-pipeline-under-investigation-by-law-firm/