This is going to be a very interesting case, with lots of far reaching repercussions, considering it was US oil, owned by a Canadian refiner, being carried by a US RR, with a terrible safety record.
I thought that the US was not permitted to export crude? I also thought that crude was not explosive. Do they do something to the crude when it is transported by ship to make it less explosive? I don’t understand how any of this happened.
Crude oil export is quite limited and nearly all of it falls under NAFTA.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_expc_a_EPC0_EEX_mbblpd_a.htm
Crude oil exports are restricted to: (1) crude oil derived from fields under the State waters of Alaska’s Cook Inlet; (2) Alaskan North Slope crude oil; (3) certain domestically produced crude oil destined for Canada; (4) shipments to U.S. territories; and (5) California crude oil to Pacific Rim countries. Totals may not equal sum of components due to independent rounding.
This was not an explosion, it was a fire. There may have been individual tanks that ruptured “explosively” due to build up of pressure without an initial rupture while setting in a pool fire from other tanks.