Union Pacific expanding South Texas workforce {Eagle Ford Oil on Rail}

Houston Chronicle via Fuel Fix ^ | March 28, 2013 | David Hendricks

[thackney]

Increased rail shipments of oil from the Eagle Ford Shale drilling and more Mexican auto exports are driving job growth and capital spending for Union Pacific Corp. in South Texas, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday in San Antonio.

U.P. spent $130 million last year on capital improvements in the region, CFO Robert Knight said during a presentation at Port San Antonio.

The railroad company also hired as many as 300 people last year in the San Antonio service area, which stretches from Katy to Alpine east to west and Hearne to Laredo north to south, said Mike Brazytis, U.P.’s San Antonio service unit superintendent.

The company will hire another 200 to 300 in 2013, Brazytis predicted.

The San Antonio service area has nearly 1,100 U.P. customers, accounting for $2.1 billion in annual revenues, or about 10 percent of U.P.’s activity.

“That’s big,” said Knight, addressing port officials and invited guests, including Texas Secretary of State John Steen Jr., Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and law firm advisor Jose Villarreal, a U.P. board member.

U.P. is busy bringing sand to South Texas from states like the Dakotas and Minnesota for hydraulic fracturing — a drilling process that uses that uses sand, water and chemicals — and shipping oil to refineries, Knight said.

Serving Gulf of Mexico coast refineries is one of U.P.’s largest activities — one that will continue to grow as refineries plan expansions totaling $15 billion in investments, Knight said.

More Eagle Ford Shale oil will be going to seven refineries on the West Coast, too. Knight could not project a specific increase in oil- and drilling-related shipments. “We can’t nail it down. It’s growing so significantly,” he said.

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Just for fun:

Union Pacific 844