Exxon to move Canadian crude by rail amid pipeline shortage

Fuel Fix ^ | January 30, 2014 | Zain Shauk

[thackney]

With limited pipeline options to ship oil sands crude out of Canada, Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to move up to 100,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil using a new rail terminal that should be running by 2015, an executive said Thursday.

The terminal, to be constructed in Alberta, will cost up to $250 million if it is built to a maximum capacity of 250,000 barrels of oil per day, said David Rosenthal, Exxon Mobil’s vice president of investor relations, during a conference call with analysts.

The rail terminal is being developed by Kinder Morgan and Imperial Oil at an initial cost of $170 million. Exxon Mobil has a 70 percent ownership stake in Imperial Oil.

“We’re looking at utilizing initially about 100,000 barrels a day to move our expanded production into the market,” Rosenthal said.

Exxon Mobil continues to evaluate options to move oil by rail, pipeline and barge, he said.

“It’s all about optionally flexibility and being able to take advantage of spreads and options to maximize the overall value,” Rosenthal said.

A number of recent oil train derailments and explosions have raised public concerns about the safety of moving crude by rail.

[thackney]

related links to other stories at the source

[thackney]

Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and the third largest energy company (based on combined enterprise value) in North America. We own an interest in or operate approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Our pipelines transport natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and more. We also store or handle a variety of products and materials at our terminals such as gasoline, jet fuel, ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel.

http://www.kindermorgan.com/

[thackney]

ping, eh...

[yldstrk]

Warren Buffet gets richer and few jobs available because no pipeline

[bert]

-——A number of recent oil train derailments and explosions have raised public concerns about the safety of moving crude by rail.-——

The concern is that that ecoterrorists see the trains as easy targets with big publicity rewards

Obama is thus the root cause of the derailments

[babble-on]

We sure need more pipelines if we’re going to be a Nat Gas economy

[thackney]

[wny]

pipelines spill more oil than railroads on a gallons-per-ton-mile basis....

[Bulwyf]

Alberta has almost 800,000 kms of pipeline. You can’t compare the rail to pipe spill amount when the volumes are not even remotely close to one another.

[Squawk 8888]

To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.

Canada Ping!

[bert]

until now....

[bitterohiogunclinger]

If they clean the spill up, who cares?
The environmental impact of an oil spill from a crude oil pipeline is usually contained in a relatively small area and can be cleaned up. Even surface water contamination can be recovered. Some environmental damage to wildlife occurs, but history has shown that it recovers without the dire predictions of doom.
Shipments by rail and watercraft are exposed to outside unpredictability factors, such as drunken ship captains and railroad engineers that are too busy texting to pay attention, etc.
I've never had to wait for an hour at a pipeline crossing, nor have I heard of a pipeline crossing accident. /s

[wny]

you can compare...if you move say 100 tons of oil 1 mile by rail, and you move 100 tons of oil 1 mile via pipeline, in both cases it’s 100 ton-miles. if in the first case 10 gallons is spilled and in the second case 100 gallons is spilled, then in this example the pipeline has 10x the spillage of the railroad.

[Bulwyf]

Oh, now you’re talking ratios, wasn’t mentioned earlier. I don’t know the ratios to compare, but pipelines are considered far safer. I work in oil and gas, mind you as an electrician, but I’m in contact with the people that make it all go. They always replace rail with pipe anywhere they can.

[albertabound]

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ib_23.htm#.UuvFkHddXKw

According to this study, crude oil transportation by both rail and truck suffer significantly more risk of spillage and danger to life, limb and property than pipelines.