Category: Railroads

(Bloomberg) — A series of rail accidents involving oil tank cars that exceed federal safety standards yet still burst into flames after derailing is shifting the focus from the container to the crude — and whether it’s too explosive to be carried by train. A wreck over the weekend in Canada brought the total to four in less than a month in the U.S. and Canada. All involved relatively modern tank cars known as the CPC-1232, which are designed to be sturdier than a model that regulators have said are prone to rupture. Safety advocates say the spills show that a proposed rule now under review at the White House to require even tougher tank cars is necessary, but that it may not go far enough. “The problem is in the product,” said Phil Steck, a New York state assemblyman whose district near Albany is bisected by oil trains. […]

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

The Canadian government faces similar pressure as its U.S. counterparts to do more to ensure oil is carried on railways safely, a lawmaker said. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada dispatched investigators to the site of a derailment of a train carrying crude oil through the village of Gogama in Ontario. The derailment is the second in the region in less than a month. The TSB’s last update was a Saturday announcement the derailment was from a train operated by Canadian National Railway Co. Glenn Thibeault, a member of the Canadian parliament and assistant to the Ontario environment minister, said more is expected from the federal government. The federal government, responsible for rail safety, must do more to protect our communities and the environment pic.twitter.com/XE2dgTn9go — Glenn Thibeault (@GlennThibeault) March 8, 2015 Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced new regulations in April aimed at increasing safety on the Canadian […]

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

ENLARGE Fire continued Friday after a train carrying 103 railcars loaded with crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale derailed south of Galena, Ill. Photo: Associated Press In a string of recent oil train derailments in the U.S. and Canada, new and sturdier railroad tanker cars being built to carry a rising tide of crude oil across the continent have failed to prevent ruptures. These tank cars, called CPC-1232s, are the new workhorses of the soaring crude-by-rail industry, carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels a day across the two countries. But the four recent accidents are a sign that the new tanker cars are still prone to rupture in a derailment. The ruptures could increase momentum for rules aimed at further reducing the risk of shipping crude by rail. In the last month, there have been significant derailments of crude-carrying trains in West Virginia and Illinois, plus two in […]

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

Smoke and flames erupt from the scene of a train derailment near Galena, Illinois, on March 5, 2015. Photographer: Mike Burley/Telegraph Herald via AP Photo (Bloomberg) — Canadian National Railway Co. is building a 1,500-foot (457 meter) long track to bypass a burning train that derailed Saturday in northern Ontario, while BNSF Railway Co. crews are working to reopen track in rural Illinois after a train carrying oil derailed three days ago. CN crews teamed with outside specialists are fighting the blaze after an eastbound train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire around 2:45 a.m. near Gogama, about 600 kilometers north of Toronto, cutting off rail traffic between Toronto and Winnipeg, Manitoba. The BNSF train jumped the tracks Thursday afternoon near Galena, Illinois, about 160 miles west of Chicago, according to the railroad, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The accidents bring to four the number […]

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

(Bloomberg) — A BNSF Railway Co. train that carried 103 cars of crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region continued to burn a day after derailing just outside a rural Illinois town. Five of the cars caught fire and were still burning, BNSF said Friday in a statement. Fires and explosions related to Bakken crude spurred North Dakota regulators to require all operators to condition the crude to lower the vapor pressure beginning in April. “An initial pool fire occurred that we believe impacted five rail cars and that fire continues to burn,” BNSF, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in the statement. “Local, state and BNSF Railway emergency personnel are on the scene working to contain the incident.” Of the 105-car train, including two sand cars as buffers, 21 jumped the tracks Thursday afternoon near Galena, Illinois, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Chicago. […]

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

Derailed train continues to burn in Illinois GALENA , Ill., March 6 (UPI) — Two cars of an oil train carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota caught fire after a derailment in near Galena, Ill., Thursday, with an evacuation of homes within a one-mile radius. The train derailed near the confluence of the Galena and Mississippi Rivers, near Illinois’ border with Wisconsin and Iowa. There were no reported injuries. BNSF Railway in a statement said the tank cars involved were the "CPC-1232 model that were unjacketed with half-height head shields." The newer 1232 model was designed four years ago as part of voluntary safety upgrades adopted by the industry. Sixteen of the 105 cars of the train, all but two carrying crude oil, left the tracks, and two ignited, Galena City Administrator Mark Moran said. The derailment is the third in three weeks. In February, trains carrying crude oil […]

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

ENLARGE Railcars continued to burn at the scene of a freight train derailment south of Galena, Ill., on Friday. Photo: Associated Press The crude oil aboard the train involved in a fiery derailment Thursday in Illinois was shipped by a big energy-trading company based in Switzerland. The firm, Mercuria Energy Trading Inc., bought the oil in North Dakota and was delivering it to refineries in Philadelphia, according to people familiar with the matter. The train, operated by BNSF Railway Co., held about 70,000 barrels of oil from the Bakken Shale in 103 tanker cars. Federal officials said 21 of the cars derailed near Galena, Ill., about 160 miles west of Chicago. Seven of them were punctured or had holes in their steel skins. About 35 crude trains traveled through the area every week, according to state data. The oil caught fire, sending a thick plume of black smoke and […]

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

ENLARGE Flames and smoke can be seen at the site of an oil train’s derailment near Galena, Ill., on Thursday. Photo: Mike Burley/TH Media A BNSF Railway Co. train carrying crude oil derailed and began to burn Thursday afternoon near Galena, Ill., just over the state line from Wisconsin and 160 miles west of Chicago. The company said the train consisted of 103 modern railcars loaded with oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, along with two cars carrying sand. Several cars derailed and two of the cars were on fire Thursday night, local officials said. The derailment took place in a rural area and there were no injuries reported, according to BNSF. The cause of the derailment wasn’t immediately known, and federal investigators were heading to the scene. Local officials called for a one-mile voluntary evacuation around the derailment. This is the third derailment of a train carrying crude […]

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

CALGARY—Canada’s national energy regulator said Thursday exports of crude oil by rail dropped in the latest quarter, a sign that lower oil prices have made shipments by rail less attractive to some Canadian crude producers. Crude-by-rail exports declined 5% to 173,342 barrels a day in the fourth quarter, down from 182,396 barrels a day in the previous three month period but still above the 148,929 barrels a day exported in the last quarter of 2013, according to National Energy Board data. A slide in oil prices to six-year lows has crimped oil producers’ profit margins and made it uneconomical for some to ship by rail. Last month, Suncor Energy Inc. and Cenovus Energy Inc., two of Canada’s largest oil sands producers, both said they have stopped shipments of crude-by-rail to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The U.S. imports more oil from Canada than from any other country. Despite an overall […]

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

Wreckage from the latest oil train explosion hadn’t yet been cleared from the crash site in West Virginia last week when President Obama vetoed legislation that would have  approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline . The timing of the two events crystallizes one of the puzzles at the heart of the U.S. oil boom: How do we move all this new crude around the country? As production in the U.S. has soared to more than 9 million barrels a day—up from just 5 million back in 2008—the pipeline industry has scrambled to reorient itself around new oilfields in North Dakota and Texas. But railroads have proven more nimble and in many cases beat pipelines to the punch . The amount of crude being moved by trains jumped by almost 5,000 percent since 2009, even though trains are less efficient and typically more expensive than pipelines. Trains offer traders and energy companies something that pipelines don’t: flexibility.  With about 80 percent […]

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