Rail moves half of US east coast crude: EIA

OREANDA-NEWS. Rail moved more than half of the crude used by east coast refineries in February, or about 52pc, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said today.

This is the first time in EIA's dataset that crude deliveries by rail have accounted for such a high percentage of east coast refinery supply. Ten of the more than 30 loading terminals throughout the US that can accommodate unit trainsare on the east coast.

The east coast began backing out waterborne imports to run onshore crudes after the shale boom began in 2010. While there are no crude pipelines carrying crude from the Bakken shale to the east coast, refiners and midstream providers constructed crude-by-rail facilities to unload and ship oil to refineries. Refineries on the east coast offload Canadian and Bakken crude by rail, including Philadelphia Energy Solution's 330,000 b/d refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and PBF Energy's 190,000 b/d refinery in Delaware City, Delaware.

East coast refiners stand to be affected by new crude-by-rail tank car regulations, which require cars carrying flammable liquids to have shell thickness of 9/16th of an inch, extra protections for valves and other top fittings, full-height head shields on both ends, exterior jackets and thermal protection for the shell and a new bottom outlet valve for any car produced after 1 October 2015. All high-hazard flammable trains must also be equipped with electronically-controlled pneumatic brakes after 2023.

Industry advocates have decried the new rules as unrealistic and unnecessarily stringent.