Refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) expects to be bringing in by rail 140,000 barrels of Bakken crude per day by the third quarter of this year, Chief Executive Officer Philip Rinaldi told an energy forum late on Thursday.
PES, a joint venture of Carlyle Group and Energy Transfer Partners, which bought former owner Sunoco last year, decided to take advantage of swelling supplies of crude from the huge shale oil play in the northwest.
"By the end of the year, we will be the single largest consumer of Bakken oil," Rinaldi told the New York Energy Forum, outlining a three-phased project to expand the ability of the two-refinery complex to take in the crude.
Tapping into rail as a means of getting cheap domestic crude, rather than importing from abroad, had turned around the plant, which had been losing a million dollars a day for three years running, he said, citing Sunoco's assessment of losses.
By April 1, PES will be able to accept two or three unit trains filled with crude per week. By July and perhaps as early as the end of May, it will take five unit trains, and in the third quarter of this year, 14 in total, Rinaldi said.The linked article has several other interesting data points.
A big "thank you" to a reader.
Any railroad buffs out there that can comment on the ability of the rail lines to handle this kind of increasing heavy load? Or will we soon be hearing of serious deterioration of nation's rail lines, similar to we hear of roads in the North Dakota oil patch wearing out way ahead of time?
ReplyDeleteA long, long time ago, some folks brought that issue up. One has to remember that a lot of coal trains are now being replaced by oil trains, but yes, I assume, we will see a lot of stories of railroads needing to be upgraded before it's all over.
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