Different alignment of stars, Krink. You're a few days late on that one. The ChatBox was full of the story.

Here's the next big thing, compliments of Uke:

http://www.wset.com/video?clipId=10109934

 

 

All true Calvin! Good article. One major problem that producers have before shipping Bakken product... Stripping out the volatiles (nat-gas, and gas-liquids) would necessitate building new refineries near, or close to the producing regions.

That's unlikely to happen! Number one... EPA, and most states have regulated against construction of new refineries within their state borders.

The choices...ship by rail, or send the product through pipelines hundreds, or thousands of miles to the 'nearest' refinery.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Why haven't 'they' built a new refinery anywhere in/near the sources (oil wells/well heads/collection sites) prior to shipping raw product?

Maybe pursue answers from these guys, they oughta have a few answers, and we pay 'em ta do this stuff. Remember take a few grains of salt...

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=29&t=6

Sorry for my tardiness Snippy. Saw nobody said a word in the CSX
section "for a few days" so I seized the moment. Think its easy
shipping oil-trains all over the place today? Oil-trains especially are
coming through a lot of towns that never seen one before and
with them coming through many times a day/night. Its an explosion
of railroad business that I've never seen before. Wait til North Dakota
thaws out this spring. They've been drilling 100's of wells already for
the water supplies to thaw and "fracking" can continue and oil will
be spilling-out of the Williston ND area countyside ready for the
next oil-train to "load and go".

Something I always wondered...is why the railroads dint buy all the tank
cars they needed as part of their rolling stock fleet to maintain the business
they know they have for ever. Why would an order for 500 tank-cars
differ from an order 500 C6 covered hoppers or a 1000 hi-cap aluminum
coal hoppers or 100 60' Hi-Cube boxcars. So how did it become where
the railroads seem to "exclude themselves" from owning "any" tankcars
basically. Been this way since I've been trackside in the mid-60's.
Every tankcars reporting marks ends with an "X". "UTLX, GATX, TILX,
and on and on. The railroads have gotten away with the passing of
so much shit in a tankcar for so many years without the public even
having a clue...unless one derails and explodes in your town.
Still I see no BNSF orders for oil tank-cars...yet. So its "all tankcars
end in X" the rest of the way.

BNSF buying up to 5,000 oil tank cars. http://journalstar.com/business/local/bnsf-buying-up-to-oil-tank-cars/article_8c502f46-0db5-5677-94f2-98c4e6638c52.html

BNSF Railway Co. plans to buy its own fleet of up to 5,000 new crude oil tank cars with safety features that exceed the latest standards adopted by the industry more than two years ago.

The unusual step furthers the industry's push for safer movement of crude by rail in light of several derailments and crashes in recent months, including one of a BNSF train in North Dakota last December. 

The company, one of the biggest movers of crude by rail throughout the United States, said it is seeking proposals from rail car makers for up to 5,000 new tank cars with more safety features than those that already meet stronger industry standards, such as thicker walls, thicker ends and more protection of safety and pressure valves.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF Railway and also a majority interest in the Marmon Group, which owns Union Tank Car Co., one of the most prominent builders of tank cars.

BNSF's plan is unusual for a railroad, which generally do not own tank cars. The railroads own freight cars, but tank cars are usually owned by companies that lease them to others, including refiners, which also own some of their own cars.

BNSF apparently plans to maintain and repair the tank cars throughout its network. Spokeswoman Roxanne Butler said there would be no corresponding increase of work or jobs in Lincoln, where BNSF has locomotive and freight car repair shops.

The December crash of a BNSF crude train in North Dakota involved rail cars that do not meet industry safety standards, Reuters reported, attributing the information to investigators. The train collided with a derailed grain train, setting off fires that burned for more than a day. No one was hurt.

Crude-carrying tank cars built after October 2011 are based on stronger design standards recommended by the Association of American Railroads trade group. That design features stronger hulls and reinforced valves less likely to puncture or leak in a derailment.

The U.S. Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is still considering new rules for safer tank cars as more crude oil moves by rail because of booming onshore oil production in the United States and Canada.

BNSF said its request for proposals "represents an important milestone in the improvement of safety standards for the transportation of crude by rail."

"BNSF believes that the RFP process will provide market participants more certainty, sooner," the railroad said. That could be a reference not just to rail car safety, but to oil shipment itself, as railroads race to carry more oil in competition with pipelines yet to be built.  

BNSF said the tank cars are to be built to exceed the stronger new standards the industry voluntarily adopted in October 2011 for the CPC-1232 jacketed tank car and will add the following new safety requirements:

* The tank car body shell and head ends must be built of 9/16 inch-thick steel.

* Equipped with 11 gauge steel jackets and full-height, 1/2 inch thick head shields.

* A thermal protection system which incorporates ceramic thermal blanketing and an appropriately sized pressure relief device capable of surviving an ethanol-based pool fire.

* A bottom outlet valve handle that can be disengaged to prevent unintentional opening.

BNSF also moves tank cars filled with ethanol. The railroad doesn't disclose its traffic, but employees have said hundreds of tank cars filled with ethanol or oil move through Lincoln and Nebraska every day.

Last week, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said they would charge higher rates for customers that move crude in rail cars built before October 2011, which the National Transportation Safety Board said in 2009 were unsafe, Reuters reported.

BNSF did not identify rail car makers from which it will seek bids, but manufacturers in the United States also include Trinity Industries Inc., American Rail car Industries Inc and Greenbriar Cos. Inc., Reuters reported