2018 could be the year crude-by-rail concerns finally wane.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple told Petroleum News Bakken that upcoming pipeline projects in the state and new rail car standards coming from the federal government should greatly alleviate train explosion incidents as the pipelines and tank car replacements are scheduled to be complete in three years.
Dalrymple spoke with U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx via phone on March 18 urging him to move swiftly in adopting new federal tank car standards. Those standards, Dalrymple said, were expected to be released in March, but now it is more likely to be May.
“Hopefully it’s pretty soon,” Dalrymple said. “I think we all need to really support these standards when they emerge. There has clearly been a lot of work and a lot of discussion that’s gone into them.”
He added that he hopes BNSF Railway doesn’t fight the new standards once they are announced but rather moves ahead with replacing equipment.
Staying on tracks
The North Dakota Industrial Commission’s oil conditioning order, which requires every Bakken barrel to be loaded for transport with atmospheric pressures no higher than 13.7 pounds per square inch, psi, takes effect April 1. Dalrymple stands behind the studies that say Bakken oil is only slightly above average in volatility, but with such large volumes - more than 700,000 barrels of oil - leaving the state each day, the commission wanted to be a part of the solution to rail safety.
“When you have a derailment, the forces that are occurring when an entire train goes off the track, at say 40 miles per hour, are such that it will rupture these tank cars like they’re a water balloon,” Dalrymple said. “Whatever is inside is going to catch fire. Whether it’s another point of pressure this way or that way is not going to make a difference. Nevertheless, we made the decision in the Industrial Commission that we want to know what the pounds per square inch is; we want to know the exact volatility of our oil when it’s loaded, and the only way to do that is to require uniform conditioning at all well sites.”
He said conditioning is a “big, big step forward,” but the ultimate solution is in rail operations - safer equipment and keeping trains on the tracks.
“If you’re talking in terms of prevention, keeping the trains on the tracks is clearly the single most important thing that there is,” he said. “The state of North Dakota is looking into its own inspection programs because there’s a lot more at stake there now.”
The state’s Public Service Commission has proposed a $1.4 million railroad safety program to enhance track inspections as well as a pipeline integrity program that would complement federal oversight in North Dakota.
“We’re doing as much as can be done at this point in time,” Dalrymple said.
Counting on pipelines
Midstream companies are making progress on pipeline projects that would take crude off trains. Over the next three years, three key pipelines are projected to carry 895,000 barrels per day - more than enough “mathematically,” Dalrymple said, to handle every barrel of crude oil that’s currently moving by rail. Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline and Enbridge’s Sandpiper Pipeline are slated for completion in 2016 and 2017, respectively. They would allow Bakken crude to reach refineries in the Midwest, East Coast and Gulf Coast. In addition, TransCanada’s Upland Pipeline, planned to be in operation in 2018, would take Bakken crude through Canada and then back into the U.S. along the East Coast.
“We think there are some existing rules that make it very feasible,” Dalrymple said. “Our agreements and own federal laws say that going out and coming back is a net no export so we think that’s not the obstacle,” he continued. “That certainly should be able to progress at a normal pace.”
Hitting close to home
When 47 people were tragically killed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, following an explosion of rail cars carrying Bakken crude, Dalrymple said it was a real “eye-opener.” But a few months later when a dozen tank cars burst into flames after two trains collided just west of his hometown of Casselton, North Dakota, it opened an investigation of Bakken crude.
“I was there the next day and they took me into the emergency response area, somewhat near the tank cars,” Dalrymple recalls. “The fire was still burning and we were a long way away from the fire and there was still a tremendous amount of heat coming off that site. They would not allow anybody else within a quarter mile of it. So it does leave an impression on you … to have an incident right in North Dakota definitely brings it home.”
He said when the tank cars continue to explode sequentially and fires spread, the horror is amplified. With additional rail incidents occurring most recently in West Virginia and Illinois, Dalrymple said a lot has been learned and the equipment changes being proposed should prevent that expansion of heat and fire. Besides stronger tank cars, pressure release valves would allow the gas to escape if heat builds up around the rail car. Though the gas may still ignite, it should not rupture the car, Dalrymple explained.
“It will simply burn like a flare, like a normal fire,” he said. “And it will keep the pressure down in that car until the outside heat subsides. It definitely would be very helpful in terms of keeping the tank car from rupturing.”
Dalrymple noted that while the upgrade to sturdier CPC-1232 (Casualty Prevention Circular) tank cars didn’t stop a fire in the West Virginia derailment, the cars did hold up better than the DOT-111 cars from the Casselton incident by only cracking open, not exploding into a dramatic fireball. He said keeping a fire at a “reasonable level” is beneficial.
“Overall, we’re making great progress,” he said.
With new pipelines, tank car standards, modified equipment and oil conditioning on the horizon, Dalrymple said the combination should make a difference.
“People will begin to see that this is a problem that’s going away,” he said.
