From Bloomberg
By Angela Greiling Keane and Mark Drajem
Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg
An oil drilling rig stands on the Bakken formation in Watford City, North Dakota.
Crude oil
produced in North America’s booming Bakken region may be more flammable
and therefore more dangerous to ship by rail than crude from other
areas, a U.S. regulator said after studying the question for four
months.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
announced its preliminary conclusion today, three days after a BNSF
Railway Co. train carrying oil caught fire after a collision in
Casselton, North Dakota.
The North Dakota accident is the fourth major North American
derailment in six months by trains transporting crude. Record volumes of
oil are moving by rail as production from North Dakota and Texas pushes U.S. output to the most since 1988 and pipeline capacity has failed to keep up.
The regulator “is reinforcing the requirement to properly
test, characterize, classify, and where appropriate sufficiently
degasify hazardous materials prior to and during transportation,”
according to a safety alert posted on its website today.
The agency’s findings may expedite the rail industry’s push
for stronger tank cars for moving crude and other hazardous materials.
It strengthens calls for the petroleum industry
to accurately label tank-car contents and test shipments to make sure
they don’t contain gases from the lighter oil produced in the shale rock
in North Dakota. MORE
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