First Rail Oil Shipment From Dickinson Shipped Monday -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here. There is so much irony in this story, coming one day -- or is it two days -- after the Keystone XL was killed.

The first train with Bakken crude oil shipments embarked on Monday from the newly completed Bakken Oil Express terminal near Dickinson, North Dakota, according to Lario Logistics, the terminal owner.

The BNSF railway train, equipped with 103 oil tank cars, left for St. James, Louisiana, with 70,000 barrels of crude aboard.

The anchor shipper was Eighty-Eight Oil.

The rail hub currently has a take-away capacity of 100,000 bpd and is the first mutli-shipper facility in the Midwest state, Lario Logistics said.

Don sent me the link. Thank you.

The most remarkable thing about this article: picked up and printed by Reuters. Pretty special.

The company plans to expand to 250,000 bopd. North Dakota is currently producing about 500,000 bopd. 

The BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett, Omaha, Nebraska, will be carrying the crude, and looking at the map, the route will take the oil over the Ogallala Aquifer, probably crossing more surface area than the Keystone XL ever would have. And just think, they will be increasing from 70,000 bopd to 245,000 bopd. Ya gotta love it. 245,000 bopd crossing Nebraska prairie.

I can't make this stuff up. Not only is oil crossing ground zero for the Keystone XL, the local folks get to put up with all that train traffic. And I assume the trains will run on diesel. Oh, yeah.