Reuters Factbox on Crude-By-Rail Terminals Serving the Bakken -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

It should be noted that "crude-by-rail" is on my top ten list of trends (see sidebar at the right).

Reuters provides a very nice update on status of crude-by-rail facilities serving the Bakken:

Company: US Development Group
Location: St James, Lousiana, delivery hub
Project: expansion to 130,000 bopd
Current ops: 65,000 bopd in unit trains mostly from the Bakken, North Dakota
Comment: partners with Plains All American


Company:  US Development Group
Location: South Texas, East Coast, West Coast, Others
Projects: new crude-by-raid terminals
Project: to build up to five new terminals around the US by 2013; to serve unit trains; each terminal to hand 65,000 bopd; to receive oil from the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Niobrara


Company: EOG Resources and NuStar
Location: St James, Louisiana
Project: expand existing terminal to receive unit trains by end of 2012
Capacity: 70,000 bopd
Current: 20,000 bopd
Comment:  completion date 1Q12


Company: Savage Cos
Location: Port Arthur, Texas
Project: to receive unit train terminal
Completion date: 2H12
Capacity: 60,000 bopd; oil from the Bakken
Comment: Savage is also building a terminal in North Dakota


Company: Various
Proejects: assorted rail projects to boost Bakken Shale crude loading
Location: North Dakota, Wyoming, Bakken Shale/Williston Basin
Completion: 2012
Capacity: add up to 370,000 bopd loading capacity
Completion date: 2012
Current: Expansion of Bakken crude-by-rail terminals to bring loading capacity from the current 130,000 bpd to 500,000 bpd. New York-based Hess (adding 130,000 bpd terminal), Oklahoma-based Musket Corp (adding 70,000 bpd terminal), Utah-based Savage (adding 90,000 bpd terminal) and Texas-based Rangeland Energy (adding 80,000 bpd terminal). Rangeland has signed a deal with refiner Tesoro Corp to supply Bakken crude by rail to its Washington State refinery beginning in 2012. Savage says it is in talks with various refiners on the East and West coasts for Bakken crude supply deals by railroad.


Bottom line: rail has capacity to handle entire Bakken production; at some point, Bakken oil might be exported overseas (I think some Bakken oil was shipped to Europe during the Libyan conflict; I have blogged about that, I believe; a company took advantage of the WTI-Brent delta and sold Bakken oil to Europe; transportation costs less than the delta).  [I do not know the current laws regarding exporting US oil; according to CIA World Factbook, the US exports about 2 million bbls/day (2009, est) but I may be misreading the source. I have had one person comment that the US has banned exporting US oil.]

Back on February 4, 2011, Reuters had a similar update:

Up to a dozen railroad terminals to load, unload and store oil are sprouting up around the United States as oil shippers turn to railroads to deliver barrels into markets where crude is priced higher.
Growing Canadian and North Dakota oil supplies are heading to Cushing, Oklahoma, in pipelines that can't deliver them further south. Flexible rail routes could allow oil cargoes to move to destinations where oil fetches a premium, and avoid a 38 million barrel glut of oil sitting at Cushing.

More data from North Dakota, located here (a PDF file):
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/pipeline/assets/Video/03022011/NDPA%20Rail%20Webinar%20Slides%202-28-2011.pdf

For those who want to see graphic of a CBR facility, here is a PDF file:
http://www.rgldenergy.com/sites/default/files/resources_bakkeninvestorsconference.pdf