Tag Archives: Oil trains

Bakken Crude, Tar sands crude, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

Benicia escaped the peril of Tar Sands Crude by rail; now it’s on the Carquinez Strait

Valero Benicia Refinery was first in line, buys a shipload of Canadian tar sands crude, receiving it along the Strait

The Benicia Independent, July 2, 2024
Carquinez Strait looking toward Vallejo, photo by Calmuziclover – Flickr, Creative Commons

Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline is in its first month of supplying heavy tar sands crude from Edmonton to Canada’s west coast. According to a July 1 Reuters article (see below), Valero’s Benicia Refinery is among the first to buy and ship this volatile crude oil.

In an earlier June 12 article, Reuters reported that recent concerns have arisen over high sulfur content of this crude, and its high acidity and vapor pressure, “conditions that could damage refining equipment or increase air pollution.” Of course, Valero has joined with Chevron and Canadian oil companies in protesting current limits on vapor pressure.

Reuters reports the departure on July 1 of 20 ships loaded with crude oil, one of which was headed to our quaint village. How long does a ship take to get here? When did – or will – the ship slog along our Carquinez Strait and dock at Valero? Any of you know how to research this? – BenIndy

Trans Mountain oil pipeline just shy of target for first-month loadings

A drone view of three berths able to load vessels with oil is seen after their construction at Westridge Marine Terminal, the terminus of the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, April 26, 2024. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

Reuters, by Arathy Somasekhar, July 1, 2024

About 20 ships loaded crude oil on Canada’s West Coast in the first full month of operation on the newly expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, according to vessel-tracking data on Sunday, slightly below the operator’s forecast.

Loadings from the pipeline expansion are closely watched because the Canadian government wants to sell the $24.84 billion (C$34 billion) line. Questions about oil quality, pipeline economics and loading challenges have swirled since its startup, spurring concerns over demand and exports of the crude.

The 20 vessels loaded were less than the 22 ships that Trans Mountain had initially expected to load for the month.

Total crude exports from Vancouver were around 350,000 barrels per day with the last two vessels for June-loading at the Westridge Marine terminal, as of Sunday.

“This first month is just shy of the 350,000-400,000 bpd we expected ahead of the startup. We are still in the discovery phase, with kinks being ironed out … but in the grand scheme of things, this has been a solid start,” said Matt Smith, lead analyst at Kpler.

The vessels, partially loaded Aframaxes able to carry about 550,000 barrels each, mostly sailed to the U.S. West Coast and Asia. Some cargoes were loaded onto larger ships for delivery to India and China, according to data providers LSEG, Kpler and Vortexa.

Reliance Industries bought 2 million barrels of Canadian crude for July delivery, a deal that involved four ship-to-ship transfers to load the oil onto a very large crude carrier offshore California. The oil is destined for Sikka, India, where the company operates the world’s biggest refining complex.

Phillips 66 acquired a cargo for its Ferndale, Washington, refinery, Marathon Petroleum Corp for its Los Angeles refinery,  and Valero Energy Corp for its Benicia, California, refinery .

TMX did not immediately respond ahead of a long weekend in Canada. Phillips 66 and Marathon Petroleum declined to comment, while  Valero  did not reply to a request for comments.

The market was expecting about 17 to 18 loadings, said Rohit Rathod, market analyst at energy researcher Vortexa.

“Chinese demand has been below expectations, and if not for Reliance most of the barrels in June would have remained within the (West Coast) region,” Rathod added.

Trans Mountain this month revised standards for accepting crude oil on its recently expanded system, alleviating worries about the acidity and vapor pressure of the line’s crude oil.

Logistical constraints in a busy, narrow shipping channel after leaving the Westridge dock in Vancouver were also expected to impact loadings. To manage high traffic in the channel, the Port of Vancouver has restrictions on transit times.

The expanded Trans Mountain pipeline is running around 80% full with some spot capacity used. Trans Mountain forecasts 96% utilization from next year. It has capacity to load 34 Aframax ships a month.

(By Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; additional reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

[FYI – More on Google about the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX)]
Bomb Trains, Lac-Mégantic, Oil train derailment and explosion

Ten Years Later: ‘Lac Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident’

Debut of film trailer ‘Lac Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident,’ From Oscar Nominee Philippe Falardeau

Variety.com, By Leo Barraclough, March 28, 2023.

Academy Award-nominated director Philippe Falardeau (“Monsieur Lazhar,” “My Salinger Year”) will present his documentary series “Lac Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident” at Canneseries as its world premiere, followed by its North American premiere at Hot Docs as part of the Deep Dive category. Variety debuts its heart-breaking trailer here (see below).

In the four-part series, Falardeau investigates one of the worst oil train tragedies in history; a foreseeable catastrophe ignited by corporate and political negligence.

Almost 10 years ago, on July 6, 2013, a devastating tragedy occurred in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, when a runaway train derailed in the heart of this idyllic town. Within seconds, six million liters of Bakken oil explode, killing everyone in its vicinity, and incinerating downtown.

At the heart of this series are the survivors who share their most intimate stories of lost loved ones and the string of injustices they’ve faced since that summer night. Yet, the steps needed to prevent another Lac-Mégantic tragedy are still not in place.

“It was extremely important to me to give a voice and a face to the people of Lac-Mégantic, who not only suffered a massive tragedy, but have been reliving the trauma over the past 10 years as the powers-that-be continue to make negligent decisions that affect their everyday lives,” said Falardeau.

“Unfortunately Lac-Mégantic is not an isolated event. Even though this tragedy shocked the world and prompted widespread calls for greater safety measures, current events show that little has been done to avoid these types of transportation disasters. Our series is a call to action to bring much needed attention and change, in honor of all of those who lost their lives.”

Following its festival premieres, the French language version of the series begins streaming May 2 on VRAI, with other broadcast announcements to follow.

The series was co-written by Falardeau with Nancy Guerin (“Left Behind America,” “A Sister’s Song,” “Pink Ribbons Inc.”).

It was produced by Annie Sirois (“Can You Hear Me?,” “Last Summer of the Raspberries,” “Escobar Told By His Sons”) for Canadian production company Trio Orange, in collaboration with Quebecor Content, and executive produced by Carlos Soldevila.

It was created with the support of SODEC Quebec, Quebecor Fund, Rogers Documentary Fund and Canada Media Fund.

Bomb Trains, Crude By Rail, Derailment, DeSmog Blog, Federal deregulation, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Oil trains, Trump administration

Latest bomb train accident shows failures of Trump deregulation

Another Bomb Train Accident Highlights Regulatory Failures

Desmogblog.com, by Justin Mikulka, December 23, 2020
Image: Oil train “pipeline on wheels” rolls through Watertown, Wisconsin. Credit: Justin Mikulka

A train carrying over 100 cars of volatile Bakken oil derailed in Washington state, causing the evacuation of the town of Custer. At least two of the train cars ruptured and the oil ignited and burned — reminding us once again why these dangerous trains are known as bomb trains. 

Matt Krogh of Stand.earth has been leading efforts to keep these dangerous trains off the tracks for years, so he was well aware of the potential deadly consequences of oil train accidents in populated areas. Krogh could see the smoke from this latest accident from his home in Bellingham, Washington.

“I think we got lucky today,” Krogh told the Associated Press, echoing the words of others after previous close calls with oil trains — several of which were highlighted in the DeSmog piece Luck Rides the Rails. 

It’s easy to feel lucky after a near miss with an oil train derailment and fire near a populated area because in 2013 an oil train full of Bakken oil derailed and caused catastrophic fires and explosions in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, — killing 47 people and destroying much of the downtown area. Downtown Lac-Mégantic has yet to be rebuilt more than seven years later.

Regulators Argue Safety Is Not A Pretext for Regulation

The state of Washington is well aware of the dangers the oil trains pose to the public and the environment and have attempted to address this issue with state regulations. Washington has five oil refineries that all are highly dependent on Bakken crude by rail. Crude-by-rail movements in the U.S. and Canada fluctuate significantly based on market conditions, but the Washington refineries are one destination for Bakken oil that maintain consistent demand for the oil, and rail is the only option to get it to Washington — so the risks to Washington residents who live near the train tracks are ever present.

In 2016 a Bakken oil train derailed in Mosier, Oregon along the Columbia River highlighting the risk the trains pose in the Pacific Northwest. Many trains bring the Bakken oil through Oregon and the Columbia River gorge to Washington.

In my 2019 book Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk I explain why the trains carrying highly volatile Bakken oil are dangerous and the simple steps the oil and rail industries could take to remove these dangers. All are steps the industries have successfully lobbied against despite the risks to the public and the 47 fatalities in Lac-Mégantic.

Washington regulators and politicians tried to take the most important safety step by passing a law that limited the volatility of the crude oil being moved by rail through Washington, a move that would greatly reduce the risk of fires and explosions during derailments. A rule proposed at the end of the Obama administration to limit the volatility was officially withdrawn by the Trump administration in May of 2020.


“If the federal government won’t act to protect public safety and adopt a safer nationwide standard, we will adopt our own,” state Sen. Andy Billig (D-Spokane) said in March 2019 of the bill he sponsored. “There is just too much to lose — for people and our environment.”

As DeSmog reported in May, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) did act, but that action was to overrule Washington’s proposed regulation with the argument that safety regulations could not get in the way of markets — arguing that a state can not use “safety as a pretext for inhibiting market growth.”

New Administration May Offer Chance at Safety Regulations

The act by the Trump administration’s regulators of withdrawing the proposed federal rule to limit oil volatility for transportation of crude oil by rail by was consistent with the official stated policy of deregulation with regards to rail safety.

This policy led to the removal of the most important safety regulation for oil-by-rail transportation that was enacted during the Obama era, which would have required oil trains to have modernized braking systems. The Trump administration removed that regulation in December of 2017.

The incoming Biden administration will have the opportunity to finally address the known dangers of moving hazardous oil, ethanol and liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail. Reinstating the braking requirement and regulating oil volatility would be important first steps. Two other areas that would improve safety would be limiting train lengths and requiring tank cars that weren’t easily punctured in derailments.

DeSmog has reported on how longer trains derail more often and yet there are no regulations for train length for trains moving hazardous materials. Most of the major derailments involving oil trains have involved trains with more than 100 cars, like the train in Custer.

The 2015 regulations for new tank cars for oil trains required the use of new DOT-117 model tank cars. As they did in this latest derailment, these tank cars have failed in all of the major derailments involving the cars hauling oil and ethanol.

Four years of the Trump administration overseeing the rail industry has put the public at even greater risk. The administration’s reckless approval of LNG-by-rail without proper safety testing or new regulations greatly increases the future danger to the public if the LNG industry starts using rail as a major mode of transportation.

Pete Buttigieg has been nominated to be the next Secretary of Transportation where he will have oversight of rail safety. At the very least Buttigeig could begin to protect the public by simply reinstating the oil-by-rail safety regulations that have been repealed, and then moving forward with the proposed regulations to limit the volatility of any crude oil moved by rail.

Until the oil and rail industries are properly regulated, the public will continue to be at great risk from bomb trains and will have to trust in luck to keep them safe.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Crude Oil, Derailment, Fire, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Oil spill, Oil trains, Tar sands crude, Washington State

Oil train derailed near site of earlier terrorist attempt, officials say

KIMA News Yakima, by LISA BAUMANN | Associated Press, Wednesday, December 23, 2020

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Federal and local authorities were investigating a fiery oil car train derailment north of Seattle near where two people were arrested last month and accused of attempting a terrorist attack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline.

Seven train cars carrying crude oil derailed and five caught fire Tuesday, sending a large plume of black smoke into the sky close to the Canadian border. There were no injuries in the derailment about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Seattle

Officials were asked about recent attempts to sabotage oil trains, but they said the investigation was just beginning.

“We’ve not been able to get close enough to the site to make an evaluation,” Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said late Tuesday.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board along with the FBI and other federal, state and local agencies were on the scene.

During a news conference Wednesday, officials spoke about their disaster planning they had done to prepare for incidents similar to what occurred with the train derailment. They also spoke about how the impact of the derailment to the surrounding environment could have been worse.

“As far as crude oil derailments and fires, this could not have occurred in a better location with regard to minimizing environmental impact,” said David Byers, who manages disaster response for the Washington Department of Ecology.

Last month federal authorities in Seattle charged two people with a terrorist attack on train tracks, saying they placed “shunts” on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks. “Shunts” consist of a wire strung across the tracks, mimicking the electrical signal of a train. The devices can cause trains to automatically brake and can disable railroad crossing guards.

CUSTER, WA – DECEMBER 22: In this aerial view from a drone, a train carrying crude oil burns while derailed on December 22, 2020 in Custer, Washington. BNSF Railway Company released a statement saying the train was traveling north when seven tank cars derailed, resulting in a fire and evacuations of the area. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)

Authorities said the pair were opposed to the construction of a natural gas pipeline across British Columbia when they interfered with the operation of a railroad in Washington state.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has said there have been dozens of such cases involving BNSF tracks since January, with a message claiming responsibility posted on an anarchist website early this year.

In one, shunts were placed in three locations in northwest Washington on Oct. 11, prompting emergency brakes to engage on a train that was hauling hazardous materials and flammable gas. The braking caused a bar connecting the train’s cars to fail; the cars became separated and could have derailed, authorities said.

CUSTER, WA – DECEMBER 22: A train carrying crude oil burns while derailed on December 22, 2020 in Custer, Washington. BNSF Railway Company released a statement saying the train was traveling north when seven tank cars derailed, resulting in a fire and evacuations of the area. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)

Home to five oil refineries, Washington state sees millions of gallons of crude oil move by rail through the state each week, coming from North Dakota and Alberta.

The seven cars derailed at about 11:46 a.m. Tuesday. Two people were on board the 108-car train headed from North Dakota to the Ferndale Refinery, owned by Phillips 66.

Critics of oil transport by rail car said Tuesday’s incident was another example of the dangerousness of the practice. They cited the 2013 fiery derailment of a train carrying crude in Lac Megantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people.

The scene in the Custer area after a train derailed Tuesday morning. (Photo: Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office)

Washington state passed a law that imposed safety restrictions on oil shipments by rail, but it was blocked earlier this year by the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Transportation in May determined federal law preempts the Washington law adopted last year, which mandated crude from the oil fields of the Northern Plains have more of its volatile gases removed prior to being loaded onto rail cars.

Matt Krogh, director of U.S. Oil & Gas Campaigns for the environmental group Stand.earth, said it is difficult for state and local officials to place restrictions on shipments of oil by train.

“Our hands are tied in many ways because of federal pre-emption,” Krogh said.