Category: Canada

Canada plans tougher standards for new tank cars used to ship dangerous goods by rail, as concerns mount about the increased use of trains to ship crude oil across the continent in the wake of several fiery derailments. Canada’s Transport Department said Friday the proposed regulations would apply to newly built tank cars and require, for instance, that thicker steel be used in their construction. Canada will also require new designs for tank cars that carry liquefied natural gas. The changes would apply to general-purpose DOT-111 tank cars, the type involved in a tragic derailment last July in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people. There have since been non-deadly derailments involving tank cars filled with crude in North Dakota and Alberta, and just this week, 150 residents of a small New Brunswick town were forced from their homes when a Canadian National Railway Co. CNR.T +1.40% Canadian National Railway […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

A Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil and propane derailed and caught fire in New Brunswick on Tuesday night after the emergency brakes were activated, federal safety officials said on Wednesday. The accident, the latest in a string of derailments that have put the surging crude-by-rail business under scrutiny, involved 17 cars on the railway’s main line, Canadian National Chief Executive Claude Mongeau told a news conference. Five cars carrying crude from western Canada and four carrying propane were among the derailed cars, he said. There were no injuries, but the fire that followed the derailment burned through the night. Approximately 150 residents were evacuated, local officials said. "At this point, the issue is contained, but of course things are evolving and we will be addressing the situation with the greatest possible safety," said […]

Click here to view full article at www.rigzone.com

;Several oil tankers continued to burn into the early evening Wednesday in eastern Canada, a day after the train carrying them derailed and caught fire, forcing the evacuation of 150 nearby residents and an apology from the chief executive of the train’s operator. A total of 17 cars, including five tankers carrying crude oil and four propane tankers, went off the tracks at 7:06 p.m. local time Tuesday about, 2.8 miles east of Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, near the Maine border, according to CN. The accident comes in a country still reeling from the derailment of a train in Quebec which left 47 people dead last summer when its crude cargo exploded in the center of the town of Lac-Mégantic. It also follows on the heels of a Dec. 30 explosion in North Dakota after a collision between two trains, one carrying a cargo of oil tankers. A boom […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Trains have resumed rolling through this small community again, past 47 Christmas trees in front of St. Agnes Church that honor the townspeople killed last July when a runaway oil train left their downtown in an inferno. The 1 a.m. crash of a driverless train that had broken free from its moorings and barreled downhill before derailing sent waves of flame coursing through town. "The downtown vanished," says Roger Garant, a retiree and city councilman. That raises the question, beyond still-unhealed psychic wounds from the tragedy, of where the money will come from to rebuild. This, in turn, leads unavoidably to a commercial issue in the midst of the human ones: insurance. The cleanup cost alone at Lac-Mégantic is running about $4 million a week, according to Mr. Garant. It may total $200 million, the Canadian government has said. Beyond that comes the expenses for rebuilding the library […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

People living near rail lines in the U.S. and Canada could be at increasing risk as trains transport more and more of the output of the continent’s energy boom. The danger was underscored this week when a Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) train hauling propane and crude caught fire en route to a New Brunswick refinery, nine days after the crash of an oil-laden train in North Dakota . They were the latest in a spate of explosive accidents drawing attention to the perils of oil in tank cars on North America ’s tracks. “We’re going to see more disasters, more chances taken,” said John Stephenson , a portfolio manager at First Asset Investment Management Inc. in Toronto who helps oversee C$2.7 billion ($2.49 billion), including shares in pipeline and rail companies. “You’re going to be putting more trains on the […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Energy companies trying to raise almost $50 billion for Canada’s first network of natural-gas export terminals will face an even more basic challenge: finding the workers to build them. Housing complexes boasting an indoor golf driving range, a two-story gymnasium and a private movie theater are among perks that companies are mulling to lure tradesmen to Canada’s remote, snow-swept West Coast and mitigate wage inflation that could blow up project budgets. Labor shortages in the country already have pushed wages for some oil and gas workers as much as 60 percent higher than their counterparts in the U.S., according to U.S. and Canadian labor data. “The lack of skilled workers is a major component for the reason why you’re often behind schedule and over budget,” said Geoff Hill, partner and oil and gas leader at financial advisers Deloitte Canada in Calgary. A dearth of labor for oil sands and […]

Click here to view full article at kpbj.com

Energy companies trying to raise almost $50 billion for Canada’s first network of natural-gas export terminals will face an even more basic challenge: finding the workers to build them. Housing complexes boasting an indoor golf driving range, a two-story gymnasium and a private movie theater are among perks that companies are mulling to lure tradesmen to Canada’s remote, snow-swept West Coast and mitigate wage inflation that could blow up project budgets. Labor shortages in the country already have pushed wages for some oil and gas workers as much as 60 percent higher than their counterparts in the U.S., according to U.S. and Canadian labor data. “The lack of skilled workers is a major component for the reason why you’re often behind schedule and over budget,” said Geoff Hill, partner and oil and gas leader at financial advisers Deloitte Canada in Calgary. A dearth of labor for oil sands and […]

Click here to view full article at kpbj.com