Posted on 11/02/2011 10:38:54 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
A truck delivers crude to the Bakken Oil Express Rail Hub in Dickinson, N.D., where it is loaded onto rail cars.
DICKINSON, N.D.—A surge in crude-oil production in North Dakota is fueling a railroad boom in one of the nation's most remote regions, as producers bet that trains will be a quick and lucrative way to break a transportation bottleneck.
The steady conveyor belt of jet-black rail cars is just the latest change in this state's western corner. Already clusters of trailers, known as man camps, have popped up in pasture lands outside of small towns like Watford City, N.D., to house oil workers. Watford City has gone from a quiet crossroads without a single stoplight to a bustling hub with its own rush hour, because it serves as a stopping point for truckers looking for diesel, Red Bull and Hot Pockets.
"We don't have the quiet, tranquil county we had, but a lot of people are working," said Ron Rankin, sheriff of McKenzie County, where Watford City is located.
The trains, trucks and trailers point to what has become a central challenge facing North Dakota's rise as a U.S oil-producing power: how to get crude out of the massive Bakken Shale reserve and to the refineries far away that process it.
North Dakota's output has grown in the last three years from a trickle to nearly 450,000 barrels a day—trailing only Texas, Alaska and California—and could double by the middle of the decade, according to analyst and industry projections. But pipelines in the region already are operating at capacity, and major new lines aren't expected to start going into service until 2013.
In response, companies are building rail terminals. Rail terminals can be developed quickly, giving them an advantage for now over pipelines.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“Rail terminals can be developed quickly, giving them an advantage for now over pipelines.”
Bill Richardson loved his choo choo trains.
Hrm, how can union labor fit in here?
It’s a right-to-work state, but the biggest obstacle to more major pipelines (Especially the Keystone pipeline) is the Obama administration.
That’s the biggest obstacle to all things good in this nation right now.
You can bet pipelines are on the drawing board as I type. Just like Pennsylvania in the beginning. First there were wagons moving oil to the refineries, next came trains, then pipelines. You just can’t do it cheaper.
What’s become of the proposed refinery near Sioux City ?
Any news ?
It is the same here in the Marcellus Shale play.
It is the liberals'newest argument against drilling --- it changes our way of life and brings all those "outsiders" into our communities along with increased crime.
A local ER doctor wrote in the paper that the increased traffic from drilling is causing increased fatalities on our roads and this is bad.
I wrote back that since medical mistakes kill over 100,000 per year perhaps we should reduce the number of doctors.
Or safer. No train to derail, no truck to wreck, no ship to run aground. If it works the first time, it continues to work as long as the pipe stays sound and the welds don't crack--and that can be inspected oftenenough that problems can be caught before they happen or get too serious.
Then all you need to do is to keep idiots from digging holes in it.
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