Rail

While rail transport of crude oil is getting a lot of attention these days, railroads are playing a bigger part in the U.S. domestic energy expansion, as BNSF Railway Co.’s $4.3 billion capital budget for 2013 indicates.

The future of continued robust growth in railing domestic crude oil supplies has come into question following the Quebec oil tanker car derailment in July, but the transporters don’t see a slowing trend longer term.

The shale revolution is stimulating a large-scale infrastructure buildout and record levels of capital spending — in the railroad industry.

Rail transport of oil is in for a long-term ride in moving burgeoning U.S. crude supplies and other liquids, according to Rick Bott, president of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources Corp., the largest producer in the Bakken Shale, where railroad shipments in recent months have accounted for more than 70% of the oil moved to market (seeShale Daily,July 11).

 Halcon Resources Corp. said an exploratory well targeting the Utica Shale has been producing more than 2,000 boe/d. The company said it plans to spend "significant time" in the play, where it has the acreage to drill up to 500 gross wells.

Crestwood Niobrara LLC is buying a 50% interest in Jackalope Gas Gathering Services LLC from RKI Exploration & Production LLC for $108 million, parent Crestwood Midstream Partners LP said Monday.

Coming out of its coldest April and wettest May ever recorded, North Dakota’s latest oil and natural gas statistics show the amounts of oil transported by rail shot up to 75% in April while new wells connected set a record at 185. Overall, April oil/gas production was down compared to March, but the daily averages set all-time records on a preliminary basis (793,249 b/d and 846 MMcf/d).

Coming out of its coldest April and wettest May ever recorded, North Dakota’s latest oil and natural gas statistics show the amounts of oil transported by rail shot up to 75% in April while new wells connected set a record at 185. Overall, April oil/gas production was down compared to March, but the daily averages set all-time records on a preliminary basis (793,249 b/d and 846 MMcf/d).

Construction is under way on Intercontinental Terminals Co. LLC’s (ITC) new bulk liquids terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, which will provide storage and handling for petrochemicals and petroleum products as well as petrochemical gases and natural gas liquids (NGL). ITC, a unit of Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.) Inc., has been operating on the channel since 1972 and owns and operates a 12.8 million bbl liquid bulk terminal facility in Deer Park, TX. The greenfield terminal is in Pasadena, TX, on the south side of the channel. Start up of operations is expected during the second quarter of 2015 with 10 tanks of 100,000 bbl each. The terminal will have two deep-water ship docks and four barge docks capable of handling large oceangoing tankers as well as inland barges. Multiple product pipelines are adjacent to or near the new terminal, which will also have rail and truck facilities.