Tag Archives: Bakken crude

Bakken Crude, CPC-1232, Crude By Rail, DOT-111, Truck transport

Kinder Morgan halts shipment of crude in Bay Area

Repost from The Martinez News-Gazette
[Editor: See also KPIX: Bay Area Crude Oil-By-Rail Shipments Halted After Price Per Barrel Drops Sharply.  – RS]

Kinder Morgan halts shipment of crude

Rick Jones | February 26, 2015

Cost-based suspension safer, but temporary

The falling price of oil has made Bay Area railways and highways a little more safe for the time being.

Kinder Morgan has halted shipments of volatile Bakken crude to its oil transfer station in Richmond. Kinder Morgan had been receiving shipments of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota several times a month on 100-car trains. One such train travels through Martinez along Highway 4. Trucks would then send that Bakken crude to Tesoro.

However, last November those shipments stopped as the freefall drop in the price of a barrel of oil made transporting Bakken crude by rail economically unviable.

“There is a cost of transporting crude. When demand is reduced and price will be reduced, it becomes not economically viable to ship (by rail),” said Martinez Councilmember Mark Ross.

Ross, a member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said the cost of transporting the light Bakken crude is approximately $12 a barrel.

“We have to find a way to reduce demand for oil,” Ross said. “And when we do that, other good things happen. Cleaner air, less dangerous trains coming through our communities.”

The last train carrying Bakken crude oil passed through the Bay Area on Nov. 22. The oil was transported via rail from Stockton to Richmond.

A train carrying more than 3 million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale derailed in a snowstorm in an unincorporated area near Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Feb. 16, shooting flames into the sky and evacuating hundreds of nearby residents from their homes.

The train, which was carrying crude to an oil depot in Yorktown, Virginia, derailed in a small town 33 miles southeast of Charleston, causing 20 tank cars to catch fire. All the oil tank cars on the 109-car train were CPC 1232 models, CSX Corp. said.

The CPC 1232 is the newer, supposedly tougher version of the DOT-111 car manufactured before 2011, which was faulted by regulators and operators for a number of years. U.S. and Canadian authorities, under pressure to address a spate of fiery accidents, are seeking to phase out the older models. The U.S. Transportation Department has recommended that even these later models be updated with improved braking systems and thicker hulls.

The fires, which destroyed one house and resulted in the evacuation of two nearby towns, were left to burn out, CSX said in a statement. No serious injuries were reported.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Evacuation, Explosion, Fire, Train speed

AP: Most residents return to homes near W.Va. train derailment – 5 homes remain under evacuation order

Repost from ABC News, AP

Most residents return to homes near W.Va. train derailment

Feb 20, 1:01 PM EST

MOUNT CARBON, W.Va. (AP) — Most residents were allowed to return to their homes Friday along a road where an oil train derailed in southern West Virginia.

State public safety agency spokesman Lawrence Messina said the last of the small fires were out at the scene of Monday’s fiery crash in Mount Carbon.

One lane of the state highway nearby reopened Friday. Because of the presence of heavy equipment trucks responding to the crash site, traffic was moving slowly.

About 225 people live in 100 homes in the area of the crash along the road. A statement from multiple agencies responding to the derailment said residents of five homes adjacent to the site remained under an evacuation order. Authorities will assess those properties to determine when it becomes safe for those residents to return.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Kevin Thompson said frigid weather continues to hamper crews trying to transfer oil out of wrecked tanker cars before the cars are removed. Hydraulic pumps were being used Friday to pump out the oil. Other equipment froze Thursday night in subzero weather conditions, he said.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the derailment of the train carrying 3 million gallons of crude from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to an oil-shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia. Speed doesn’t appear to have been a factor, Federal Railroad Administration acting administrator Sarah Feinberg said Thursday.

The crash shot fireballs into the sky, destroyed a house, leaked oil into a Kanawha River tributary and forced nearby water treatment plants to temporarily shut down.

Twenty-seven of the 107 tank cars on the CSX train derailed, and 19 of those were involved in the fires.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire

Media explosion over West Virginia oil train explosion

Editor: I have never seen an upsurge in media coverage like this.  There may be a national consensus forming that oil trains are disasters in waiting.  There are simply too many stories “out there” to post them all.  Here is a summary of many of the best NEW stories (as of late 2/19/15) from media outlets across the country.  ALL are important and worthy of your attention.  – RS

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Hazmat notification, Rail routing

REUTERS: CSX plans to bypass crude train derailment site

Repost from Reuters
[Editor:  Gee, this is great news for devastated and shaken residents of Fayette County, West Virginia … but, well, just exactly whose communities will now be visited by the bomb trains that used to run through Fayette County?  – RS]

CSX plans to bypass crude train derailment site: state officials

By Jarrett Renshaw, Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:51pm EST
Firefighters inspect derailed train cars after CSX Corp train derailed in Mount Carbon, West Virginia pictured across the Kanawha River in Boomer, West Virginia February 16, 2015. REUTERS/Marcus Constantino
Firefighters inspect derailed train cars after CSX Corp train derailed in Mount Carbon, West Virginia pictured across the Kanawha River in Boomer, West Virginia February 16, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Marcus Constantino

(Reuters) – CSX has notified state officials of its plans to bypass the scene of a crude train derailment and continue delivering oil to a terminal on the Virginia coast, emergency management officials from Virginia and West Virginia said Wednesday.

A train carrying North Dakota crude to an oil depot in Yorktown, Virginia, derailed on Monday in a small town 33 miles southeast of Charleston, causing 20 tank cars to catch fire. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were still small fires at the scene.

Early last year, the Obama administration ordered all rail operators to disclose their crude routes to local and state emergency management officials. The companies must also report any changes.

“All appropriate state notifications are complete for re-routing of oil shipments that would typically use that line. Those shipments will use a combination of CSX and other railroads to reach eastern Virginia destinations,” CSX spokesman Gary Sease said in an email Thursday.

CSX has notified West Virginia and Virginia officials of its plans to use other rail lines to deliver crude oil, state officials confirmed. Part of the plan is to use a Norfolk Southern line, West Virginia officials said.

States have taken differing approaches to releasing the routes to the public. Some see a risk of attacks or sabotage if routes are disclosed and say it is confidential company information. Others regard it as the public’s right to know. West Virginia refuses to disclose the routes, while Virginia does.

“That’s the best legal advice we have. It’s proprietary information, said Chris Stadelman, a spokesman for West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat.

In the past, Virginia has released the details, and a state official was determining whether to release the changes.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Andrew Hay)