Tank

Canada announced an accelerated safety schedule Monday for stopping railway crude oil deliveries with an old generation of accident-prone tank cars that had a role in a Quebec tragedy three years ago.

Federal worker safety authorities last Friday issued a hazard alert for tank gauging with particular relevance for operators involved in shale oil handling and storage. The action follows fines levied against two oilfield service companies in Colorado involved in a worker’s death at an oil tank site in 2014.

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would accelerate the phase-out of older rail cars that transport crude oil by incentivizing the process with a tax credit for companies that make upgrades.

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would accelerate the phase-out of older rail cars that transport crude oil by incentivizing the process with a tax credit for companies that make upgrades.

Researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) said nine oil and gas extraction workers were killed over a five-year period after inhaling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while manually gauging or sampling production tanks at oil and gas well sites.

The Transportation Board of Canada (TSB) said it is concerned about a plan by regulators to phase out the use of DOT-111 tank cars for transporting crude oil, suggesting that 2025 isn’t soon enough as it investigates a derailment and fire that occurred this month in Ontario.

Canadian regulators have proposed introducing a new class of tank cars to transport flammable liquids by rail, requiring shippers to begin phasing out what they consider to be the most dangerous rolling stock for crude oil in two years for a complete transition by 2025.

There is no slippage in the push to build more railroad tank cars for transporting crude oil and other energy products, the CEO of a leading railcar manufacturer told financial analysts.

While it has a phase-out process running into 2017 for old (DOT-111) rail tank cars that carry crude oil, Canada’s Transport Department (CTD) has accelerated the process by banning nearly 3,000 of the older model cars from carrying “dangerous goods” throughout the nation.