Tag Archives: Tank cars

Federal Regulation (U.S.), Rail Safety, Rail tanker cars

NTSB: DOT-111 rail tanker cars “unacceptable public risk”

Repost from Associated Press, on Huffington Post

DOT-111 Rail Tank Cars Used To Ship Oil Called ‘Unacceptable’

by JOAN LOWY,  Posted:
Main Entry ImageA DOT-111 rail tanker travels through Council Bluffs, Iowa, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rail tank cars being used to ship crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region are an “unacceptable public risk,” and even cars voluntarily upgraded by the industry may not be sufficient, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

The cars, known as DOT-111s, were involved in derailments of oil trains in Casselton, N.D., and Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just across the U.S. border, NTSB member Robert Sumwalt told a House Transportation subcommittee hearing.

Forty-seven people were killed and 30 buildings destroyed in the blaze ignited by the Lac-Megantic accident. The Casselton accident, which occurred half a mile outside the town, created a massive fire that burned for more than 24 hours.

The NTSB has been urging replacing or retrofitting the tank cars since 1991, but the most recent federal effort to write tougher regulations for new cars didn’t get underway until 2011. An initial public comment period closed in December, and regulators are currently at work writing proposed new standards, Cynthia Quarterman, head of the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, told the panel. She said she expects her agency to propose new tank car standards before the end of this year, but refused to be pinned down under questioning by lawmakers on when those rules might become final.

“Right now, there is so much uncertainty that people aren’t going to make investments in safer cars and they’re going to keep running these crummy cars and killing people,” Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., complained.

Quarterman said she expected her staff to finish writing proposed rules “very soon.” All major regulations go to the White House before they are issued to ensure the safety benefits outweigh the cost to industry. It often takes months to years between when new rules are proposed and when they become final.

Ed Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, said the industry has strongly urged the government to set new tank car standards.

“We believe there needs to be a safer tank car,” he said.

At least one major freight railroad has given up waiting. Last week, BNSF invited bids from manufacturers for 5,000 new tank cars made to new specifications that the company has developed. The aim is to make these latest tank cars safer than the voluntarily upgraded tank cars that the NTSB has questioned as possibly not safe enough.

The NTSB has said vulnerabilities with the DOT-111s means they are easily ruptured during accidents, releasing crude oil or other hazardous liquids like ethanol that then ignites.

U.S. crude oil production is forecast to reach 8.5 million barrels a day by the end of 2014, up from 5 million barrels a day in 2008. The increase is overwhelmingly due to the fracking boom in the Bakken region, which is mainly in North Dakota, but also extends into parts of Montana and Canada.

U.S. freight railroads transported about 415,000 carloads of crude in 2013, up from just 9,500 in 2008, according to government and industry figures.

The oil trains, some of which are 100 cars long, pass through or near scores of cities and towns.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, called on the freight rail industry and the Transportation Department to amend a voluntary agreement reached last week to address oil train safety concerns. He said the agreement should be changed to require industry to develop a plan no later than July 1 to phase out or retrofit the DOT-111s.

“Each week seems to come with another freight train derailment, and it is imperative we undertake every measure necessary to ensure the safety of our nation’s communities through which these crude oil tank cars pass,” he said in a statement.

Kevin Thompson, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said the agreement was just one step in ongoing efforts to improve the safety of crude oil shipments by rail.

“All communities will see a reduced risk of derailments because of increased track and mechanical inspections and the use of enhanced braking technology” under the safety agreement, Thompson said.

Federal Regulation (U.S.), Rail Safety, Rail tanker cars

U.S. Safety Ruling causes Canada company to suspend use of some DOT-111 tank cars

Repost from The Calgary Herald

Crude-by-rail shipper deals with U.S. ruling

Some cars suspended but shipments continuing, says Torq CEO

Crude-by-rail shipper deals with U.S. ruling
Emergency workers examine the aftermath of a train derailment and fire in Lac-Megantic, Que., last July. Photograph by: Ryan Remiorz , AP

By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald February 26, 2014

CALGARY — Some tanker cars in Western Canada have been temporarily suspended from being used to ship oil in the wake of Tuesday’s U.S. rail safety ruling, the chief executive of Calgary-based terminal operator Torq Transloading Inc. said Wednesday.

But service is continuing to be offered, Jarrett Zielinski told the Herald.

“Everything is under regulatory review. The shipments we ship are compliant,” he said in an interview.

“Every precaution is being taken on our end. We are working collaboratively with the regulators, the railroads and the customers to ensure all of our shipments are compliant and there has been no interruption of service.”

A story by Bloomberg earlier in the day had quoted a Torq executive as saying shipments had been halted but Zielinski said that’s not true.

The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday ordered energy companies to immediately conduct chemical tests on all crude intended for rail shipment and warned that certain commodities require more robust tank cars for transport.

Zielinski said his private company ships between 40,000 and 45,000 barrels of oil per day but it doesn’t own the cars. He said the “vast majority” of the cars are compliant and any that are questionable have been “temporarily suspended while they are reclassified.”

He said about 95 per cent of the oil his company ships is undiluted heavy oil, which has a much lower risk of igniting than the light crudes shipped from the North Dakota Bakken — such as the cargo aboard the train that exploded in July at Lac-Megantic, Que., killing 47 people.

Most of the oil is bound for the United States. He said Torq frequently tests the product.

Two Calgary-based oilsands shippers said they don’t believe the U.S. ruling will affect their transportation plans.

Producer MEG Energy Corp., which began shipping diluted bitumen in December through the Canexus Corp. rail-loading facility northeast of Edmonton, and moved six unit trains each carrying 60,000 barrels of diluted bitumen in January, is not affected, said spokesman Brad Bellows.

“The cars we have made arrangements to move our products on are very modern cars that meet or exceed all the recent standards and the outlook,” he said.

Spokesman Pius Rolheiser of Imperial Oil Ltd. said the new rules are not expected to affect a project to build a 100,000-barrel-per-day oil loading terminal near Edmonton.

“We’re still in the process of design and manufacture of the cars but I can tell you with certainty they will meet Canadian safety guidelines,” he said. “The tanker cars we use in this project will meet the DOT 111-F specification, which is the American Association of Railroads current specs. That requires thicker shells as well as steel shields to guard both ends of the car.”

Imperial Oil will be the base load customer in the project it is sharing with American transportation partner Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. Startup is set for next December and the terminal is expected to ship diluted bitumen from Imperial’s Kearl oilsands mine.

Bakken Shale, Derailment, Environmental Impacts, Rail industry, Rail tanker cars

Wall Street: Bakken Crude Carries Higher Risks

Repost from Wall Street Journal

Bakken Crude Carries Higher Risks

Data Show Oil From North Dakota, Mostly Carried by Rail, Is More Combustible Than Other Types

Crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation contains several times the combustible gases as oil from elsewhere, a Wall Street Journal analysis found, raising new questions about the safety of shipping such crude by rail across the U.S. –
Federal investigators are trying to determine whether such vapors are responsible for recent extraordinary explosions of oil-filled railcars, including one that killed several dozen people in Canada last summer.The rapid growth of North Dakota crude-oil production—most of it carried by rail—has been at the heart of the U.S. energy boom. The volatility of the crude, however, raises concerns that more dangerous cargo is moving through the U.S. than previously believed.Neither regulators nor the industry fully has come to terms with what needs to be done to improve safety. But debate still rages over whether railcars need to be strengthened, something the energy industry has resisted.”Given the recent derailments and subsequent reaction of the Bakken crude in those incidents, not enough is known about this crude,” said Sarah Feinberg, chief of staff at the U.S. Transportation Department. “That is why it is imperative that the petroleum industry and other stakeholders work with DOT to share data so we can quickly and accurately assess the risks.”The Journal analyzed data that had been collected by the Capline Pipeline in Louisiana, which tested crude from 86 locations world-wide for what is known as vapor pressure. Light, sweet oil from the Bakken Shale had a far higher vapor pressure—making it much more likely to throw off combustible gases—than crude from dozens of other locations.Neither federal law nor industry guidelines require that crude be tested for vapor pressure.  Marathon Petroleum Corp., which operates Capline, declined to elaborate on its operations except to say that crude quality is tested to make sure customers receive what they pay for.

According to the data, oil from North Dakota and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas had vapor-pressure readings of over 8 pounds per square inch, although Bakken readings reached as high as 9.7 PSI. U.S. refiner Tesoro Corp., a major transporter of Bakken crude to the West Coast, said it regularly has received oil from North Dakota with even more volatile pressure readings—up to 12 PSI.

By comparison, Louisiana Light Sweet from the Gulf of Mexico, had vapor pressure of 3.33 PSI, according to the Capline data.

Federal regulators, who have sought information about vapor pressure and other measures of the flammability and stability of Bakken crude, have said the industry hasn’t provided the data despite pledges to do so.

The industry’s chief lobbying group said it was committed to working with the government but that historically it hadn’t collected the information. The energy industry has resisted the idea that Bakken Shale oil’s high gas level is contributing to oil train explosions, but the American Petroleum Institute is revisiting the question.

David Miller, head of the institute’s standards program, said a panel of experts would develop guidelines for testing crude to ensure it is loaded into railcars with appropriate safety features.

The rapid growth in transporting oil by rail was rocked by several accidents last year. Last summer a train loaded with 72 cars of crude exploded, leveling downtown Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and killing 47 people. Later in the year, derailed trains exploded in Alabama and North Dakota, sending giant fireballs into the sky.

Most oil moving by rail comes from the Bakken Shale, where crude production has soared to nearly a million barrels daily at the end of last year from about 300,000 barrels a day in 2010.

The rapid growth in Bakken production has far outpaced the installation of pipelines, which traditionally had been relied on to move oil from wells to refineries. Most shale oil from Texas moves through pipelines, but about 70% of Bakken crude travels by train.

Bakken crude actually is a mixture of oil, ethane, propane and other gaseous liquids, which are commingled far more than in conventional crude. Unlike conventional oil, which sometimes looks like black syrup, Bakken crude tends to be very light.

“You can put it in your gas tank and run it,” said Jason Nick, a product manager at testing-instruments company Ametek Inc. “It smells like gasoline.”

Equipment to remove gases from crude before shipping it can be hard to find in the Bakken. Some Bakken wells are flowing so quickly that companies might not be able to separate the gas from the oil, said Lynn Helms, director of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources. “At a really high flow rate, it is just much more difficult to get complete gas separation,” he said.

There also is a financial benefit to leaving gaseous liquids in the oil, because it gives companies more petroleum to sell, according to Harry Giles, the retired head of quality for the U.S. Energy Department’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The federal government doesn’t spell out who should test crude or how often. Federal regulations simply say that oil must be placed in appropriate railcars.

There are three “packaging groups” for oil, based on the temperatures at which it boils and ignites. But these tests don’t look at how many volatile gases are in the oil, and that is the industry’s challenge, according to Don Ross, senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Without clear guidance, some oil producers simply test their crude once and generate a “material safety data sheet” that includes some broad parameters and characteristics.

Much of the oil industry remains resistant to upgrading the 50,000 railcars that are used to carry crude oil, saying it would be too time consuming and expensive. The problem, they argue, isn’t the cargo but a lack of railroad safety.

—Laura Stevens and Tom McGinty contributed to this article.

Derailment, Rail Safety, Tar sands crude

UPDATE: Tar-sands oil spill in Vandergriff, PA

Repost from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Train derails in Vandergrift; leaking crude oil

Jason Bridge | Valley News Dispatch – Crews from Norfolk Southern inspect derailed tanker cars near the MSI Corporation building along First Avenue in Vandergrift on Thursday, February 13, 2014.

February 13, 2014
By Chuck Biedka
Published: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, 8:30 a.m. 

 

At least 21 train tanker cars carrying crude oil and propane derailed shortly before 8 a.m. in Vandergrift near a specialty metals plant.

 

At least one of the cars leaked about 1,000 gallons of what Norfolk Southern Rail spokesman David Pigeon described as “heavy” crude oil. That car is resting near the East Vandergrift border. The spill did not make it to the Kiski River.

 

One car crashed into a building at MSI Corp, a specialty metals manufacturer, forcing officials to evacuated the building so it could be checked for structural integrity. Company employees in that building were sent home for the day.

 

No injuries have been reported.

 

Early in the afternoon, two Norfolk Southern contractors were on the scene to begin clearing the cars. Officials from Westmoreland County Emergency Management, the federal Transportation Safety Administration and local firefighters and police are at the scene.

 

Officials had considered evacuating homes from the nearby Sherman Avenue neighborhood but determined that wouldn’t be necessary. The closest homes appear to be about 250 yards from the derailment scene.

 

Norfolk Southern’s Pigeon said the train was en route from Conway, Beaver County, to Morrisville, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia. Neither he nor emergency officials had any information about what may have caused the derailment.

 

Although no streets are closed because of the derailment, the normally busy rail line is closed.

 

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