DRUbit Or Dilbit -- DRUbit-By-Rail -- DBR -- Game-Changer -- October 17, 2021

Note: in a long note like this there will be content and typographical errors. If this is important to you, go to the source.  

A reader alerted me to the story. Thank you.

Elections have consequences: this would not be a story had Resident Biden not canceled the Keystone XL. But here we go again. Assuming Biden's regulators don't stop the merger, and assuming the merger goes through, there will be a "new pipeline" running from western Canada to the US gulf coast.

The "new pipeline" will be above ground and run on two rails.

DBR, not CBR.

From The Star Tribune via Yahoo!Finance:

• the "new pipeline": Canadian Pacific - Kansas City Southern (one of many links here)
• new venture: USD Partners -- processes heavy oil with diluent and then loads it on rail tank cars;
  
• the "pipeline" bisects the Twin Cities
• could add as many as 15 to 20 oil trains through Minnesota each month
• would begin as early as 3Q21
• destination: Port Arthur, TX
• I don't know where this stands with regard to approval by US regulators, but it seems it would be difficult to halt the deal when Resident Biden said his administration is looking for additional ways to move "energy" around the nation -- LOL -- in addition:
  
• while remaining the smallest of six U.S. Class 1 railroads by revenue, the combined company will be a much larger and more competitive network, operating approximately 20,000 miles of rail, employing close to 20,000 people and generating total revenues of approximately $8.7 billion based on 2020 actual revenues. 
• so we'll see
• CP is already the largest rail shipper of oil in the state
• volume varies considerably: anywhere from five to nineteen "hazardous" trains per month
• but get this:The new oil trains running from USD's terminal aren't likely to be tallied in those state counts. USD said the oil is not hazardous cargo as defined under U.S. and Canadian transportation regulations.
• folks can correct me but this is my understanding:
• Houston-based USD Partners will process / load the diluent-bitumen at their facilities in Hardisty, east-central Alberta, Canada unto the CP-KCS railroad
• the diluent - bitumen slurry is abbreviated to "dilbit" but DB Partners refers to this as DRUbit-by-rail (DBR) 
• the DRU facility in Hardisty is, apparently near completion, if not already completed
  

Folks will argue about this for quite some time, but one wonders whether DBR through the Twin Cities would even be an issue if the Keystone XL had not been canceled and had other pipelines not been delayed, deferred, or canceled (see Liberty Pipeline).