Human Interest: Crude By Rail
Link to The Dickinson Press.
Because
of the lack of pipeline alternatives to move oil to refineries, when
the North Dakota Oil Patch began to explode a few years ago, energy
companies turned to moving much of their crude by railway.
One of the
largest railroad transportation companies in the U.S., BNSF Railway has
stepped to the plate as the Oil Patch has played a key role in the
country’s push toward energy independence.
And then more:
“BNSF has been hauling Bakken crude out of the Williston Basin area
for over five years,” BNSF executive Dave Garin said earlier this year.
“In that time, we have seen the volume increase nearly 7,000 percent,
from 1.3 million barrels in 2008 to 88.9 million barrels in 2012. We see
this trend continuing.”
BNSF is connected to 16 of the top 19
oil-producing counties in central and western North Dakota, but
petroleum isn’t the only resource being shipped via railroad, ....
“For 2012, we will invest an
estimated $86 million on maintenance and rail capacity improvement
projects in North Dakota,” McBeth said. “BNSF hauls more than 40 percent
of Bakken production. In addition to oil, BNSF hauls inbound materials
needed for each new well, such as sand and pipe.”
The article should of been titled "Warren Buffet is smiling". In the end though it is fortunate there is a rail infrastructure capable of stepping up to handle the takeaway problem.
ReplyDeletePipelines seem to be the new bad boy of the radical environmentalist. Soon to come will be a campaign to limit trains because they emit far too much co2, and think about what a derailment would do leaking all that awful dirt black crude and harming mother nature.
Just a thought on the way I read reports in the media, especially some who have a bias against traditional energy use. I look for code words such as fracking instead of fracturing or oil patch instead of oil field, basin, or formation. It is a clue where the author is coming from. This author over did the oil patch thing. All in all not a bad article for a Forum Communication outlet.
Warren Buffett will enjoy this story, also:
Deletehttp://www.milliondollarwayblog.com/2012/12/wow-wow-wow-it-never-quits-another-huge.html