Crude-by-rail exports surge in Canada as pipeline restraints squeeze oil industry

Analyst estimates shipments could hit 300,000 barrels by end of 2018

CBC News

With the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project stalled, and overall Canadian pipeline capacity limited, the pressure to ship crude oil out of Alberta continues to grow.

The amount of oil shipped by rail has been increasing and showing little signs of letting up. The National Energy Board reported in June that crude-by-rail exports from Canada set a record of 204,558 barrels per day.

Analysts say much of the crude-by-rail growth has been driven by increasing production and ongoing pipeline capacity problems.

Crude-by-rail exports set record in June, surpass 200,000 barrels per day

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Energy consultant Greg Stringham said oil-by-rail shipments have been growing over the past few years.

"With further delays in pipelines, that's increased the amount of oil that's moving by rail but also increased the interest in that as well as companies look to that option," he said.

Stringham said the industry shipped about 140,000 barrels by rail per day last year, and shipments could hit 300,000 barrels by the end of this year.

"Pipelines are in the future but rail is something that can accelerate relatively quickly," he said.

According to Kent Fellows with the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, rail companies are working to increase shipment volume by purchasing more locomotives as oil continues to compete for rail capacity with sectors like agriculture and manufacturing.

He said the increase in shipping crude by rail has been on the rise over the past 10 years.

"Going back about the last decade, you're going from pretty minimal levels to something that now is a fairly significant chunk of total car loadings," he said. "So it's a fairly new phenomenon over the longer term in Western Canada."

Fellows said oil production is still projected to increase, and the only place to take up that slack is the rail industry.

Hoid said:

I am the guy who said the pipeline was not going through when you were saying the pipeline was going through.
My opinion is more valid because events have proven it right and proven you wrong.

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It's going to be built and you'll be crying in your beer.

BC has nothing to offer Canada other than toilet paper and a little bit of fruit and veg which require clear cutting and are energy and water intensive.

I'll give the pipeline a pass if moonbats stop using toilet paper and smoking indoor weed.

All that ecological damage to millions of hectares of forest and watersheds and diesel to harvest and transport product just to wipe shit off your ass and flush that is guaranteed harm to waterways and and aquatic species can't be remediated.

A $2 wash cloth works better, will last a year and is recyclable.

Thanks to indoor weed millions of cubic meters per year of precious water is wasted and millions of liters of diesel for the off grid types who don't want to get caught.

If it weren't for that indoor weed and AC to keep it from dieing there would be no need for water restrictions to water lawns which absorb sunlight and drastically lowers the temperature of cities and reduce the need for AC. A house with a watered lawn is 7C cooler than a dead lawn from watering restrictions.

Then there are the fertilizers involved with weed that get dumped down the drain when flushing.

Disgusting.

Currently the majority of BC'S gasoline comes from Washington, Alberta Saskatchewan, Alaska and sometimes Newfoundland.

At one time Burnaby and Port Moody were major oil hubs.

Strange how Barnet Inlet survived with 4 refineries and in bound tanker but a pipeline for exports is a death sentence.