Connecting The North Dakota CBR Dots -- Keeping North Dakota Great -- September 10, 2018

Updates

Later, 6:46 p.m. CDT: is LNG-by-rail a pipe dream? Not really. I can't remember if I posted this story two years ago, but it seems like I did. From Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Railroad becomes the first railroad in the US to haul LNG. Screenshot:

Original Post

For background to this story, click on tag, "Port of North Dakota."

Now this story from myndnow, sent by a reader -- a huge "thank you." I would have missed it.

Data points, link here and the myndnow link above:

• Industrial Park of Minot
• northeast corner of Minot
• 800 acres
• only site in the state of North Dakota to become BNSF Site Certified for logistics and distribution
• was certified two years ago
• nationwide, only thirteen BNSF Site Certified sites
• has direct access to the BNSF Railway
• zoned for Heavy Industrial (I-2)
• convenient access to three US highways
• Minot Area Development Corporation planning a $25 million project to upgrade the city's ability to land major businesses that required access to rail services
• intermodal shipping for agricultural products and oil

And then this, from the same reader:

• remember all that talk about NGL-processing plants in North Dakota? Where are they? Why aren't they happening?
• now, with the DAPL and less need for all that CBR, what should North Dakota do with all that rail?
• connecting the dots: there is talk that the state, the oil industry, and the railroads are looking to ship LNG out of state on rail via unit train
• the preliminary thought is the railroad can double stack 12,000 gallon containers of LNG and ship east, west, and south out of ND
• the container tanks can be loaded on container ships and sent anywhere in the world
• no need to have the LNG facilities at the port to off load the big LNG ships that sail along the gulf coast 

Only one BNSF Site Certified site in the state of North Dakota. Minot.

Wow.

The reader noted that real estate deals are picking up in Minot.

The linked articles mentioned that Minot had access to three major US highways. A reader sent me a map of natural gas pipelines in North Dakota. I overlaid that map with segments of the three highways that run through Minot.