Updates
September 19, 2014: sounds like the new propane terminal is operational?
Original Post
Earlier I posted this story on propane shipments from North Dakota.
Today The Dickinson Press provides the local angle for bringing propane to the North Dakota farmers:
CHS Inc.’s new rail-fed propane terminal west of Hannaford in east-central North Dakota is coming together — an important step as the industry ramps up to fill a void left by the discontinuation of a key pipeline terminal.
CHS is one of the region’s bigger players in the propane business, delivering propane that dozens of cooperative suppliers then deliver to their retail customers.
The new facility will be the biggest propane unloading facility in North Dakota and the largest tank farm in the region. It will operate around the clock.
The propane company uses a loop track to access a new spur that can handle up to 48 cars. The new CHS terminal is operated and maintained by Central Plains Ag, itself a 50-50 partnership between CHS and West Central Ag of Ulen, Minn.The new propane facility will start functioning with three 90,000-gallon tanks — a total of 270,000 gallons initially.
Initially, the tank farm was planned for only five tanks, but in December, the plan expanded to a dozen. Phase two expansion, set for this summer, will be fully in place for fall harvest and heating in 2014.
The facility will be able to handle groups of six cars at a time, once the plant is fully operational. The terminal can load up to six trucks an hour, using two bays — theoretically more than 100 trucks per day.
The propane terminal makes the complex unique in the region.
The “loop” handles 110-car trains and was built to accommodate the Central Plains Ag Services dry fertilizer facility, on its west side. The fertilizer plant was built in 2009 at 25,000 tons and has since expanded to 40,000 tons. In 2012, Central Plains built an elevator on the east side of the circle — 1.3 million bushels in concrete storage, another 1.5-million-bushel bunker and then 1.3-million-bushel steel tanks.Much, more more at the linked article.