Category Archives: Fire

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Tar sands crude

DAILY SUMMARY: March 11, 2015 – A sample of massive media coverage on CBR

[Editor: There is an incredible volume of news media postings and calls for action following the recent crashes and explosions in the U.S. and Canada.  Here is a single day’s postings for March 11, 2015, many thanks to Google.  – RS]

ONE DAY IN THE NEWS – CRUDE OIL TRAIN DERAILMENTS

Spate of derailments deepens fears of oil train disasters
Longview News-Journal
Four trains hauling crude oil have derailed in the U.S. and Canada since mid-February, rupturing tank cars, spilling their contents, polluting waterways …

Train derailments raise concerns about volatility of Alberta crude – The Globe and Mail

Spate of derailments deepens fear of oil train disaster – Tulsa World

Bee in Turlock: Council hears about crude oil train safety – Modesto Bee

Canada to propose tougher oil tank standards after a string of crashes
CTV News
A U.S. Transportation Department analysis predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two …

Transport Canada proposes new tank-car standards after fiery derailments – The Globe and Mail

Canada to propose tougher oil tank standards after a string of derailments – Minneapolis Star Tribune

Trains Carrying Crude in Canada to Face Tougher Safety Standards – Bloomberg

RPT-UPDATE 1-Rail industry pushes White House to ease oil train safety rules
Reuters
More than a dozen industry representatives made their case at the Washington meeting last Friday, a day after a crude oil train derailed in Illinois.

Barrage Of Lobbying On New Oil Train Rules – OilPrice.com

Gogama derailment: Fix tracks or slow trains down, union says
CBC.ca
As the investigation continues in Gogama to find out why 38 CN tanker cars carrying Alberta crude oil jumped the tracks on Saturday, the bypass built …

Canada’s rail safety standards a failure, NDP says – NorthernLife.ca

TSB Investigators able to get close to train wreck – Timmins Times

Call mounts for tougher US crude-by-rail rules
Argus Media
Three explosive derailments have happened in the last month; two in Ontario and one in Illinois. All involved crude oil. Questions are also rising over …
Galena marks latest in series of explosive railway accidents
The Rock River Times
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train carrying crude oil derailed near the confluence of the Galena River and the Mississippi last Thursday …

Rising rivers next challenge in derailment cleanup – Dubuque Telegraph Herald

Gogama train derailment highlights treaty infringement, chief says
CBC.ca
The third train derailment in less than a month in northern Ontario … “When we talk about the transporting of dangerous goods, like crude oil, through …

Mary-Jane Bennett: Federal regulators need to recognize the danger in transporting Alberta crude oil – Financial Post

Transport Minister wants CN Rail to testify in Parliament – CanadianManufacturing.com

Town Board Urges Action to Prevent ‘Bomb’ Train Accidents on Hudson
Philipstown.info
Citing the “explosive and … corrosive” nature of crude oil transported by trains … Both accidents set off conflagrations, and the Canadian derailment …
Rail Safety Must be a Top Priority
Lynchburg News and Advance
Twenty months ago on July 6, 2013, a runaway train carrying tanker cars filled with highly flammable Bakken crude oil derailed in the tiny Canadian …
Train derailments raise concerns about volatility of Alberta crude
The Globe and Mail
Bakken crude is widely believed to be more volatile than conventional oil and operators in … At least six trains carrying Bakken crude have derailed and caught fire since the 2013 accident in Lac-Mégantic, which killed 47 people.

Turlock city leaders concerned about safety of crude oil trains – KCRA Sacramento

Bee in Turlock: Council hears about crude oil train safety – Modesto Bee

Oil trains reroute through county after West Virginia wreck – Chesterfield Observer (subscription)

PHMSA updates train derailment investigations
The Bakken magazine
In mid-February, a train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed in West Virginia, and in early March, another train carrying oil from western North Dakota …
Harrisburg City Council wants legislation to prevent crude oil accidents
FOX43.com
Those trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Oil fields often travel … Trains carrying Bakken crude oil are often referred to as bomb trains. … of the fireballs and explosions coming from the trains that have derailed.
Durbin, Bustos urge completion of tougher rail tank car standards
Chicago Sun-Times
Of the 105 total cars on the BNSF train, 103 were loaded with Bakken crude and headed for Chicago at the time of Thursday’s derailment, Bustos said. … Last month, a train hauling crude oil derailed and exploded in West Virginia, …

Galena marks latest in series of explosive railway accidents – The Rock River Times

Correction: Rail Cars Story
ABC News
Since 2008, derailments of oil trains in the U.S. and Canada have seen the … A train carrying Bakken-formation crude from North Dakota in the older …
Train derailments increase as oil industry booms, local railroad, emergency officials say they …
Idaho State Journal
Four trains hauling crude oil have derailed in the U.S. and Canada since mid-February, rupturing tank cars, spilling their … None of that is Bakken crude, which some government tests have shown to be more volatile, even though the …
Call mounts for tougher US crude-by-rail rules
Argus Media
Crude train derailments comprise a tiny percentage of overall train incidents. … Crude oil comprises 1.6-1.7pc of all carloads moved in the US, and 99.995pc of … York) has called for the DOT to require stabilization of Bakken crude.
String of ‘Bomb Train‘ Explosions in the US and Canada Casts Doubt On Proposed Safety Upgrades – VICE News
New — Supposedly Safer — Oil Tankers Involved in a Series of Fiery Rail Explosions – VICE News
Rail Safety Must be a Top Priority
Lynchburg News and Advance
Twenty months ago on July 6, 2013, a runaway train carrying tanker cars filled with highly flammable Bakken crude oil derailed in the tiny Canadian …
Mary-Jane Bennett: Federal regulators need to recognize the danger in transporting Alberta crude oil
Financial Post
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO – Glenn ThibeaultFour separate oil trains — two … CN’s trains derailed in wooded, unpopulated areas, and not into the town’s … The widely-held industry belief that Alberta crude is safer than Bakken oil is …
Valero says trains in Canada derailments carried its synthetic crude – Seeking Alpha (registration)
Dr. James Egan: Deny Valero’s application
The Benicia Independent
5, 2015 edition of The Herald, “Another delay as crude-by-rail project debate enters 3rd year,” signals sympathy toward the Valero Benicia Refinery as …
Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Petroleum distillates, Synthetic crude, Tar sands crude, Valero Energy Corporation

Trains in Canada derailments carried synthetic crude for Valero

Repost from Reuters

Trains in Canada derailments carried synthetic crude for Valero

TORONTO, Mar 10, 2015 12:56pm EDT

(Reuters) – The two oil trains that derailed and burst into flames in recent weeks in northern Ontario were both carrying synthetic crude to Valero Energy Corp’s refinery near Quebec City, the U.S.-based company said on Tuesday.

Saturday’s CN Rail derailment came less than a month after another CN train carrying oil went off the tracks and ignited in northern Ontario. The railway had said both were carrying crude from Alberta, but declined to give their exact destination.

“We take safety very seriously, so we’re concerned anytime there’s an incident,” said Valero spokesman Bill Day. “Despite the number of rail incidents recently, it is very rare for cargo not to be delivered to its destination safely.”

Day said all of the rail companies Valero works with, including CN Rail, have good safety records.

Synthetic crude is produced from Alberta’s oil sands in upgrader plants, and usually commands a premium to conventional crudes because it is lighter and easier to refine into valuable byproducts such as gasoline.

Valero’s Jean Gaulin refinery is in Levis, across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.

In May 2013, the company said it would build a rail off-loading facility at the Jean Gaulin refinery so it could start using Western Canadian crude rather than relying on pricier imports. The company told Reuters it would take light, sweet Western Canadian crude rather than heavier oil sands crude.

Shipments of North American crude to the refinery ramped up early last year. On a July earnings call, the company said North American grades made up 83 percent of the refinery’s feedstock in the second quarter of 2014, up from 45 percent in the first quarter and 8 percent higher than a year earlier.

Separately on Tuesday, CN spokesman Jim Feeny said the train that derailed in February had been carrying petroleum distillates in addition to synthetic crude.

“The contents of the tank cars are a subject of interest and the TSB will be testing the contents to determine what they were,” said John Cottreau, spokesman for Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incidents.

In a note to shippers on Tuesday, CN said a temporary bypass track would likely be completed by late afternoon, reopening its main line in northern Ontario.

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto, and Scott Haggett and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Alan Crosby)
Bakken Crude, Derailment, Diluted bitumen (Dilbit), Emergency Readiness & Response, Evacuation zone, Explosion, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Fire, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Moratorium, Rivers, Tar sands crude, Volatile gases, Wildlife

Fourth Oil Train Accident in Three Weeks Shows Need for Immediate Moratorium

Repost from The Center for Biological Diversity

Another Oil Train Derails and Catches Fire in Ontario

Fourth Oil Train Accident in Three Weeks Shows Need for Immediate Moratorium

Center for Biological DiversityGOGAMA, Ont.— An oil train derailed and caught fire early this morning in Ontario near the town of Gogama, the second such incident in Ontario in three weeks, and the fourth oil train wreck in North America in the same time period. Since Feb. 14, there have also been fiery oil train derailments in West Virginia and Illinois. The Illinois wreck occurred just two days ago, and the fire from that incident is still burning.

“Before one more derailment, fire, oil spill and one more life lost, we need a moratorium on oil trains and we need it now” said Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The oil and railroad industries are playing Russian roulette with people’s lives and our environment, and the Obama administration needs to put a stop to it.”

In the United States, some 25 million people live within the one-mile “evacuation zone” of tracks carrying oil trains. In July 2013, a fiery oil train derailment in Quebec resulted in the loss of 47 lives and more than a million gallons of oil spilled into a nearby lake. A report recently released by the Center for Biological Diversity also found that oil trains threaten vital wildlife habitat; oil trains pass through 34 wildlife refuges and critical habitat for 57 endangered species.

Today’s Ontario accident joins an ever-growing list of devastating oil train derailments over the past two years. Oil transport has increased from virtually nothing in 2008 to more than 500,000 rail cars. Billions of gallons of oil pass through towns and cities ill-equipped to respond to the kinds of explosions and spills that have been occurring. Millions of gallons of crude oil have been spilled into waterways. In 2014, a record number of spills from oil trains occurred.

There has been a more than 40-fold increase in crude oil transport by rail since 2008, but no significant upgrade in federal safety requirements. The oil and rail industries have lobbied strongly against new safety regulations that would help lessen the danger of mile-long trains carrying highly flammable crude oils to refineries and ports around the continent. The Obama administration recently delayed for several months the approval of proposed safety rules for oil trains. The proposed rules fall short because they fail to require appropriate speed limitations, and it will be at least another two and a half years before the most dangerous tank cars are phased out of use for the most hazardous cargos. The oil and railroad industries have lobbied for weaker rules on tank car safety and brake requirements.

The administration also declined to set national regulations on the level of volatile gases in crude oil transported by rail, instead deciding to leave that regulation to the state of North Dakota, where most of the so-called “Bakken” crude originates. Bakken crude oil has been shown to have extremely high levels of volatile components such as propane and butane but the oil industry has balked at stripping out these components because the process is expensive and these “light ends” in the oil bring a greater profit. The North Dakota rules, which go into effect next month, set the level of volatile gases allowed in Bakken crude at a higher level than was found in the crude that set the town of Lac Mégantic, Quebec on fire in 2013, or that blew up in the derailment that occurred last month in West Virginia.

The crude involved in today’s accident may be another form of flammable crude, called diluted bitumen, originating in Alberta’s tar sands region. The Feb. 14 derailment and fire in Ontario on the same rail line involved an oil train hauling bitumen, otherwise known as tar sands.

“Today we have another oil train wreck in Canada, while the derailed oil train in Illinois is still smoldering. Where’s it going to happen next? Chicago? Seattle?” said Matteson. “The Obama administration has the power to put an end to this madness and it needs to act now because quite literally, people’s lives are on the line.”

In addition to its report on oil trains, the Center has sued for updated oil spill response plans, petitioned for oil trains that include far fewer tank cars and for comprehensive oil spill response plans for railroads as well as other important federal reforms, and is also pushing to stop the expansion of projects that will facilitate further increases in crude by rail.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 825,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Bakken Crude, CPC-1232, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Tar sands crude

CN Rail, BNSF Tackle Accidents as Group Seeks Ban on Oil Trains

Repost from Bloomberg News
[Editor:  Many groups have called for a moratorium on crude by rail; this may be the first time a highly respected national media outlet has highlighted this view in a headline.  New in this report: “The U.S. Department of Transportation said 14 cars were in a pileup and half of those were punctured. Emergency responders evacuated a 1-mile radius, which contained six homes.”  – RS]

CN Rail, BNSF Tackle Accidents as Group Seeks Ban on Oil Trains

March 8, 2015, by Doug Alexander9:33 AM PDT
Illinois Train Derailment
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 of oil train wrecks in North America in the past three weeks, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The environment group is calling for a halt to transport of oil by rail, which has surged since 2009 with the boom in crude production from shale.

“We need a moratorium on oil trains,” Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist at the center, which has fought to protect wildlife for 26 years, said in a March 7 statement. “The oil and railroad industries are playing Russian roulette with people’s lives and our environment.”

The BNSF train was carrying oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation for Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. Twenty-one of the train’s 105 cars, which include two sand cars as buffers, jumped the tracks Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Department of Transportation said 14 cars were in a pileup and half of those were punctured. Emergency responders evacuated a 1-mile radius, which contained six homes. No injuries have been reported.

BNSF plans to reopen its mainline track Monday, Mike Trevino, a spokesman for the railroad, said in a phone interview Sunday.

40-Fold Increase

North American oil producers have increased their reliance on rail as new pipelines failed to keep pace with a surge of production from shale. The typical rail car carries about 700 barrels of oil, according to data posted on BNSF’s website. The number of oil carloads rose more than 40-fold from 2009 through 2013, when 435,560 carloads were shipped, and kept climbing last year to an estimated 500,000, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The CN derailment damaged a bridge over a waterway as five tank cars ended up in the water, with some of them on fire, the Montreal-based railway said in a Saturday statement. Crews have placed three lines of booms on the river to contain the crude. Drinking water supplies to Gogama Village and a nearby Mattagami First Nation community are not affected, CN said.

“Fire suppression activities will begin later today,” spokesman Jim Feeny said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. “Residents will likely see occasional smoke plumes of various shades of black, gray or white. This is expected, normal, and poses no threat to the public or the environment.”

Pipeline Limits

The railcars, carrying crude oil from Alberta, are CPC-1232 models railroads began to roll out in 2011 to boost safety.

The accident marks the second derailment of a CN oil train in three weeks near Gogama. A train with 100 cars, all laden with crude from Alberta bound for eastern Canada, derailed on Feb. 14 about 30 miles north of the town. A total of 29 cars were involved in that incident and seven caught fire, a spokesman said at the time.

Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are on site, which is 37 kilometers from the previous accident, agency spokesman John Cottreau said Sunday by phone. The train was headed to Levis, Quebec, when 30 to 40 cars derailed.

“Billions of gallons of oil pass through towns and cities ill-equipped to respond to the kinds of explosions and spills that have been occurring,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity. “Millions of gallons of crude oil have been spilled into waterways.”

For safe and healthy communities…