How To Get Train In Oil Service In Oil Field

June x, 2014

Rough-by-rails transportation provides Bakken Shale production access to major markets

Map of rail terminals, as explained in the article text

Source: U.Due south. Energy Information Administration
Notation: Data are equally of March 2014. PADD denotes Petroleum Assistants for Defense District.

As onshore crude oil production in the United States increased over the past few years, producers have increasingly moved rough oil out of production areas by rail. Producers in North Dakota, in particular, have used rail to ship crude oil to refineries and midstream companies at newly built unloading terminals on the East Coast and W Coast.

The number of runway carloads of crude oil began ascent in 2012, as production in the Bakken Shale and other shale plays grew. According to the N Dakota Pipeline Authority, Bakken rails outflow capacity totaled 965,000 barrels per twenty-four hours (bbl/d) at the end of 2013, compared to 515,000 bbl/d of pipeline capacity. While some refineries are being congenital or planned for the area, well-nigh Bakken crude oil volition go on to be moved out of the region to be processed at refineries in other parts of the country.

Domestic crude oil supply to East Declension (PADD 1) refineries has increased with ascension U.South. crude oil production in the Bakken surface area and expansion of crude-by-rail infrastructure. Imports from foreign countries into the E Coast of lite sweet crude oil, which is of a quality similar to Bakken crude, have declined as a result of increased receipts of Bakken crude from PADD 2. Some East Coast refineries take on-site rail unloading terminals, while other refineries receive crude by barge after it has been moved by rail to an unloading last:

2 refineries, PBF Energy in Delaware Urban center and Philadelphia Free energy Solutions in Philadelphia, receive crude oil directly by rail, with unloading capacity of 120,000 bbl/d and 160,000 bbl/d, respectively.
Enbridge'southward Eddystone Track facility, located outside Philadelphia, began operating in May 2014. This facility is able to transfer 80,000 bbl/d to Philadelphia-area refineries by barge after receiving rail shipments.
Other rail unloading facilities that transfer crude by runway to barge for transport to refineries are located in Yorktown, Virginia, and Albany, New York.

On the West Coast (PADD 5), increased receipts of Bakken crude have partially offset declines in product from California and Alaska. West Declension refineries have ramped up crude-by-rail volumes in contempo years. Several large unloading facilities are planned to come online in the adjacent few years:

Tesoro, which currently has capacity to unload 50,000 bbl/d at its refinery in Anacortes, Washington, has proposed a 360,000 bbl/d facility at the Port of Vancouver, besides in Washington.
In addition, several new unloading terminals are planned to open up in 2014 and 2015, with nigh of the unloading chapters in California and Washington.

In addition to crude-by-runway loading facilities in the Bakken, new rail terminals take been congenital to ship crude oil product from the Niobrara Shale formation in Colorado and Wyoming, and the Permian Bowl in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Several crude-by-rail loading terminals are already operating in the Niobrara, which has admission to a vast rail network to transport arable coal product from Wyoming'due south Powder River Basin. While the Permian Basin has much greater oil production than the Niobrara Shale, it besides relies more than on pipelines to transport crude oil product. However, in response to significant production growth in that location, especially from tight oil formations, Rangeland Energy terminal month began construction on its RIO Hub rail loading terminal in Loving, New Mexico. This terminal is scheduled to begin operating later this year, with the projection's developers expecting to eventually raise its chapters to 100,000 bbl/d.

Map of rail terminals, as explained in the article text

Source: U.South. Energy Data Administration, U.Due south. Energy Mapping Organisation
Notation: Interactive version is available on the U.South. Energy Mapping System website.

In add-on to crude oil pipeline flows, EIA's U.South. Free energy Mapping Organisation now enables users to see where these growing rough oil flows by rail are occurring. The mapping system now includes a new layer showing the location of crude-by-rail terminals in the Us (seen the map above). In addition to the new Crude Oil Track Terminal layer, the U.S. Free energy Mapping System has 2 other new layers—for ethylene crackers and wind turbines—and has several updates to existing layers.

Principal contributor: Katie Teller, Arup Mallik, Jim O'Sullivan