End Of The Line For Bakken CBR -- RBN Energy -- July 29, 2015 -- Part I

Active rigs:

	7/29/2015	07/29/2014	07/29/2013	07/29/2013	07/29/2013
Active Rigs	73	192	179	179	179

RBN Energy: the end of the line for CBR in the Bakken? (archived)

Bakken crude-by-rail (CBR) volumes are down this year and pipeline shipments are increasing as production levels off in the wake of last year’s price crash. The trend is encouraged by lower price differentials between domestic and international crude as well as new pipelines coming online. Since 2012 a combination of rail and pipeline has given Bakken producers ample crude takeaway capacity but pipelines alone have not had sufficient capacity on their own. However, with production slowing down, pipeline capacity is catching up and by 2017 there should be enough pipelines to carry all North Dakota’s crude to market. Today we start a two part series asking whether pipelines can replace CBR from North Dakota.