Wednesday, October 17, 2012

How Big Is Crude-By-Rail Coming Out of the Bakken? Pretty Big

Link to Billings Gazette (huge "thank you" to Don for the link).
BNSF’s oil shipments out of the Bakken have grown exponentially, from 1.3 million barrels in 2008 to 90 million barrels in 2012.
Thirty-five facilities for unloading crude oil from trains are under development in several states, and that will lead to even more shipments, Rose said.
Likewise, the railroad is shipping more freight into the Bakken area. Sand used in hydraulic fracturing is in big demand, as well as other products such as lumber used to build new houses, Rose said.
BNSF’s big investment in oil hauling resulted from a shortage of pipeline capacity that has constrained oil shipments out of the Bakken.
90 million / 365 --> 250,000 bopd.

The Bakken is producing about 700,000 bopd.

Rail. Flexible. Scalable. Incredible.

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if the 90 million is a projected number for all of 2012 or if it's 2012 to-date. If it's to-date, there are 74 days left in the year.

    90M/(365-74)= 310,000 bpd. That's an entire unit train more per day.

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    1. I don't know, but the way the article is written, I would assume that is for the entire year. Operators should be able to estimate pretty closely full year numbers; I'm sure most (if not all) shipments through the rest of the year are already contracted for.

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