Wow, Talk About Turn Of Events: One Year Ago Philadelphia Refineries On Life Support. Today: Talk Of Philadelphia Becoming A New "Cushing" -- A Reminder to Jane: All Because Of The Over-Hyped Bakken; An 8-Page Internet Article

Rigzone reporting:

When two executives of a Philadelphia-based petroleum midstream and processing company last year proposed developing a crude-by-rail terminal to deliver domestic light sweet crude oil to five area refineries clustered along the Delaware River, the response from some was less than encouraging.

"They said we were nuts," recalled Erik Johnson, vice president and general manager of Canopy Prospecting Inc.

"Crude oil to U.S. East Coast refineries has typically been delivered by water-borne methods since the early 1900s," he explained. "Some people who are currently retired and had spent a career in refining thought that rail-borne crude deliveries was an antiquated idea and not viable."

Lending credence to some refining veterans' lackluster response was a chain of recent events. The fortunes of the region's oil processing facilities had taken a downward turn. For starters, Sunoco had announced that it would close or sell its Marcus Hook and Philadelphia refineries. Subsequently, ConocoPhillips (now Phillips 66) announced plans to immediately idle its Trainer refinery and sell the asset as a terminal or refinery.

This is an 8-page internet article.

A nice data point:

Shipping domestically produced crude oil in rail tank cars is more expensive than transporting the commodity by pipeline, but Johnson and Galloway contend that bringing in 70,000 to 80,000 barrels a day on a unit train would still make the Philadelphia refining market dramatically more competitive. Recent trends suggest that processing Bakken crude rather than imported slates could save a refiner roughly $25 per barrel in feedstock costs.

Three eventual Philadelphia market developments signified a turning point in the region's refining fortunes. Two of these events helped to bolster the case for Canopy's proposal. First, Delta Airlines unit Monroe Energy purchased, upgraded and re-started the Trainer refinery. In addition, The Carlyle Group and Sunoco created a joint venture – Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) – that will keep the Philadelphia Refinery open.

Okay, one more:

Having garnered a lease for the crude-by-rail terminal, Canopy now had to find the money to make the $68 million project a reality. Johnson and Galloway initially explored the private equity route, but their due diligence efforts brought them in contact with a representative of Enbridge Energy Co. Their acquaintance with the Canada-based company, whose extensive assets include a 120,000-barrels per day crude-by-rail terminal in Berthold, N.D., to complement its 355,000-barrels per day North Dakota Pipeline System, suggested that Canopy initiate talks to investigate a joint venture (JV).