Posted on 08/28/2014 12:09:11 PM PDT by thackney
The amount of crude oil and refined petroleum products moved by U.S. railroads increased 9% during the first seven months of this year compared with the same period in 2013. In July, monthly average carloadings of oil and petroleum products were near 16,000 carloads per week, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). The increase in oil volumes transported by rail reflects rising U.S. crude oil production, which reached an estimated 8.5 million barrels per day in June for the first time since July 1986.
AAR estimates that more than half of the nearly 460,000 carloads tracked in its petroleum and petroleum products category from January through July consisted of crude oil, up from around 3% in 2009. With the average rail tank car holding around 700 barrels of crude oil, about 759,000 barrels of crude oil per day were moved by rail during the first seven months of 2014, equal to 8% of U.S. oil production.
The Bakken Shale, primarily in North Dakota, has provided a significant share of the total increase in U.S. oil production over the past three years. North Dakota, now the second-largest oil producing state, provides nearly one out of every eight barrels of oil produced in the United States. Between 60% and 70% of the more than 1 million barrels per day of oil produced in the state has been transported to refineries by rail each month in the first half of 2014, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.
In the future, proposed rules published in August by the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve the safety of tank cars will affect how crude oil is moved by rail, particularly trains that carry 20 or more carloads of oil. The proposed rules would require new oil tank cars constructed after October 2015 to have thicker steel and require retrofitting of existing tank cars. Voluntary actions by railroads in anticipation of the new rules have resulted in reduced speeds and increased inspections.
Oil has been blamed for the great increase in the cause of delay’s in other shipments like grain.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3197922/posts
But this shows oil and refined products account for about 5% of the total carloads. Is this just another “blame big oil” media game?
AAR Reports Increased Weekly Rail Traffic
https://www.aar.org/newsandevents/Freight-Rail-Traffic/Pages/2014-08-28-railtraffic.aspx#.U_9-zvldV8E
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported increased U.S. rail traffic for the week ending August 23, 2014 with 300,505 total carloads, up 3 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 265,761 units, up 3.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic was 566,266 carloads and intermodal units, up 3.2 percent compared with the same week last year.
Eight of 10 of the carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2013, including petroleum and petroleum products with 16,396 carloads, up 28.4 percent; grain with 18,721 carloads, up 17.6 percent; and nonmetallic minerals with 40,279 carloads, up 10.5 percent. The commodities that posted a decrease were coal with 115,050 carloads, down 3.9 percent; and chemicals with 30,003 carloads, down 0.1 percent.
For the first 34 weeks of 2014, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,826,641 carloads, up 3.7 percent compared with the same point last year, and 8,730,830 intermodal units, up 5.7 percent from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 34 weeks of 2014 was 18,557,471 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.6 percent from last year.
Canadian railroads reported 78,883 carloads for the week, down 0.4 percent, and 61,303 intermodal units, up 8.7 percent compared with the same week in 2013. For the first 34 weeks of 2014, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,682,698 carloads, up 1.5 percent from the same point last year, and 1,927,004 intermodal units, up 7 percent from last year.
Mexican railroads reported 15,544 carloads for the week, down 4.9 percent compared with the same week last year, and 11,549 intermodal units, up 1.7 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 34 weeks of 2014 was 533,138 carloads, up 1.7 percent from the same point last year, and 348,797 intermodal units, up 3.6 percent from last year.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 34 weeks of 2014 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 13,042,477 carloads, up 3.1 percent compared with the same point last year, and 11,006,631 intermodal containers and trailers, up 5.8 percent compared with last year.
US oil production is going to save the railroads and the US economy, it seems. That’s great, and all despite Obama.
The railroads were “saved” by the Staggers Act of 1980 which deregulated them. For the past 34 years, the railroads have been making money hand over fist. The Bakken field is a gift for the BNSF, which is totally owned by Warren Buffett.
Tell me about it. I live along US 95 in northern Idaho which is also the route of BNSF’s major line. The amount of train noise has increased exponentially with increases in trainloads of coal and oil. I counted one train with 4 locomotives, one boxcar that was probably full of spill clean-up gear, and 140 tank cars. That sucker must have been a mile long.
Pipelines are a much safer, more efficient way to transport oil. The only reason the environazis don’t protest oil trains is because owebama’s buddy owns BNSF.
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