Another CBR Terminal For Western Canadian Oil

It's getting hard to keep up with all these stories. I'm pretty sure this is a new story, one I have not posted. (By the way, another "thank you" to readers who send me these stories and links. Don sends me a lot of the stories and I don't always acknowledge that. My bad.)

This is another CBR terminal to be constructed near Hardisty, Alberta.

In my mind, I picture Hardisty sort of like America's Cushing, Oklahoma, the center of oil receiving, storage, and shipment. One can search "Hardisty" on the web site and find the number of stories about pipelines coming into and out of that staging area.

Now, they are adding CBR terminals due to, most likely, the lack of movement on the Keystone.

The Wall Street Journal provides these data points:

• joint venture between Gibson Energy Inc and US Development Group LLC
• near Hardisty, Alberta
• cost not disclosed
• Gibson: Alberta-based midstream energy company
• US Development Group: Houston-based
• terminal will be able to hand two unit trains daily up of up 120 railcars each
• the terminal will handle multiple grades of crude oil
• initial capacity: 140,000 bbls
• 1Q14: operational
• five-mile pipeline from Canadian Pacific Railway's North Main Line to Hardisty Terminal

You know, I'm beginning to think killing the Keystone XL will result in a lot more long term jobs than the pipeline would have, and many of those jobs will be in Canada.

Three things will follow:

• a lot more railcars will have to be built, maintenance of those railcars
• maintenance of track will be enhanced
• more track will be laid

I can envision dual track where there is currently single track in a lot of locations. This will be much more manpower intensive and longer-lasting in terms of jobs than pipelines ever would have been.

As an example, a Greenbrier press release dated today:

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. announced today it has signed a multi-year maintenance supply agreement to provide CIT Rail with dedicated access to repair capacity at Greenbrier's railcar repair & parts shop in Atchison, Kansas, with opportunities to expand to additional repair facilities in its nationwide network. Throughout the term of the agreement, the parties will collaborate to match CIT Rail's railcar maintenance requirements with available shop capacity, thereby maximizing shop utilization and reducing out of service time for CIT railcars.

Greenbrier expects the repair work it performs under the agreement will enhance revenue and gross margins for its Wheels, Repair & Parts segment starting in its 2014 fiscal year. 

CIT Rail is one of the largest freight car owners in North America with a fleet of approximately 104,000 railcars and 400 locomotives. CIT aims to provide its customers with high quality and dependable railcar assets and this agreement will serve to secure shop space for preventative railcar maintenance, regulatory certifications, lining and paint work and other standard service needs.