Wow, Wow, Wow -- It Never Quits -- Another Huge Story on Bakken Crude By Rail

If you want to get to the story in this post, scroll past the initial stuff. Scroll down to "THE STORY." 

Initial Stuff -- Don't Read If Interested Only In the Bakken -- Scroll Down To "The Story"

Again, a huge "thank you" to Don for the story below.  I cannot articulate a) how important input from readers is to improving the blog; and, b) how incredible some of these stories are, stories about the Bakken.

[How important is input form readers? If you want less "political" stuff and less stuff about Apple computers, overwhelm me with Bakken material. I am under contract to provide "x" amount of words on the blog each day and if I don't have Bakken material, I need to blog other stuff. Smile.]

[Hint: I know a lot of readers would appreciate solid "rumors" or more news regarding drilling activity that is not posted by the NDIC.]

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Again, one of several reasons for starting the blog a couple years ago was to counter the naysayers.

The original naysayers doubted the Bakken even existed -- hard to believe, I know; and then, when the numbers started coming out of the Bakken, the naysayers said the Bakken was good for North Dakota but that was about it.

I particularly enjoy citing this post from another blog as an example: "Don’t believe it. There’s some oil to be gotten out of Bakken, and it’s going to be exploited. But the “bonanza” is nothing but hype." -- June 25, 2010.

"Some oil to be gotten out of the Bakken ... Nothing but hype." Wow.

Needless to say, I no longer follow that site, though I might start checking in again; I see they have a great post on how wind and solar projects will ruin the west. I agree. But I digress. [As long as I've rambled this far: the oil patch in North Dakota is a very small geographical area of North Dakota and almost trivial in size compared to the entire "west." However, to generate a similar amount of energy from wind and solar, the entire "west" would need to be covered with wind farms and solar panels. If you don't believe me, do the math.]

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I used to say that the Bakken was important for two reasons:

a) for the North Dakota economy
b) as a laboratory for fracking which is now being used across the US

I have to change that slightly, modify (b) and add a third bullet. The Bakken is important for three reasons:

a) for the North Dakota economy
b) as a laboratory for fracking which is now being used around the world
c) for the US economy.

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Updates

December 13, 2012: hundreds attend forum in Vancouver to discuss these new coal shipping terminals. 

THE STORY

For the Bakken, this is where you want to start

Folks who doubt the national importance of the Bakken, see the most recent story on Bakken crude being shipped to a BP refinery, the Cherry Point refinery at Cherry Point, Washington. One word: huge.

BP Cherry Point Refinery is moving ahead with a rail construction project to accommodate trainloads of crude oil from the booming Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana.

BP spokesman Mike Abendhoff said the company has submitted an application for the project to Whatcom County planners and could begin construction in early 2013 on the $60 million rail loop. If that happens, the refinery would begin receiving crude shipments by rail in spring 2014. But Abendhoff also said corporate headquarters had not yet green-lighted the expenditure.

If the project does clear all of the public and corporate processes, BP would construct its own 10,200-foot rail loop on refinery property. The loop would be big enough to hold an entire train of crude-oil tank cars without obstructing an existing BNSF Railway Co. industrial rail spur.

BNSF proposes to double-track that same spur if the Gateway Pacific Terminal project is approved for coal and other bulk cargo exports ... [MDW: I believe faux environmentalists are trying to stop this project, and very well could succeed. There's a name for this behavior: economic suicide.]

While Gateway Pacific could draw as many as nine loaded trains per day at maximum capacity, Abendhoff said the BP refinery expects one loaded oil train every two days,....

Go to the link for the full story.