With several recent accidents involving transport of crude by rail (CBR) raising safety concerns, industry associations are moving to address the incidents through a focus on derailment prevention and education for first responders.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said as of 2014 crude oil shipments by rail have increased by more than 400% since 2005, citing data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

While AAR data through the week ended March 28 suggested that U.S. crude production and crude-by-rail transport may be declining moderately, Global Hunter Securities (GHS) strategist Richard Hastings said in a recent report that “the data is highly erratic on a week-by-week basis” and a stronger pattern would need to emerge to draw any definite conclusions. Even with the decline, total carloads for March were up from the rate when crude oil prices peaked in June 2014, GHS said.

As one means of accident prevention in crude-by-rail transport, the NTSB has called for stricter standards for tank cars, though even newer model tank cars have been breached in accidents. The government is also launching efforts to better track CBR.

In response to a recent U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study on crude oil properties and transportation, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said the report showed that no single factor can determine the flammability of a certain grade of crude oil.

“This report shows the need to focus more on preventing train derailments as part of a holistic approach to safety improvements of shipping oil by rail,” said Robin Rorick, midstream director for API.

DOE’s study said several characteristics can make one shipment of crude oil more or less volatile than another, such as:

  • Flashpoint: Temperature that results in a vapor concentration in air that will support combustion. When the flashpoint is reached a flash of flame occurs without sustained burning. The flashpoint temperature is lower than sustained burning requires;
  • Flammability limits: Range of vapor concentration in the air that will support combustion;
  • Auto-ignition temperature: Minimum temperature at which a fuel-air mixture ignites;
  • Minimum ignition energy: Minimum energy needed to ignite a flammable fuel-air mixture; and
  • Burning velocity: Rate at which reactants flow to a flame from a certain point, such as a burner.

With so many variables, predicting the right combination is difficult. Designing tank cars that will prevent ignition in a derailment is second place as far as prevention of catastrophic accidents is concerned, Rorick said.

Prevention is more important, he said. Companies shipping oil by rail “can and must do more to prevent derailments as part of a comprehensive approach to safety.”

Time To Act?

But others believe that with so much train traffic carrying so much oil, structural changes to tank cars are needed.

Recent high-profile derailments, including the February derailment of 27 CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) tank cars carrying crude oil in West Virginia, are leading to increased efforts by industry members and regulators to prevent accidents.

The NTSB is pushing for changes to DOT-111 tank cars, the “workhorse” of the industry and the most common rail tank car in use. Vulnerabilities in the design include the tank heads, shells and fittings, NTSB said. In 2013, the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, derailment involved at least 60 DOT-111 in an incident that led to 47 deaths.

“These vulnerabilities create the risk that, in an accident, hazardous materials could be released and, in the case of flammable liquids such as crude oil and ethanol, could ignite and cause catastrophic damage,” the agency said earlier this year.

However, West Virginia’s February derailment involved the newer CPC-1232 model, which were said to be safer.

As a result of the CSX and other derailments, the NTSB evaluated the performance of the CPC-1232 model and, on April 3, said the tank car design “is insufficient to prevent tank failures from pool fire thermal exposure and the resulting overpressurization.” The agency recommended to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that a new tank car design including sufficient thermal protection systems and pressure relief devices were needed and should be implemented during the next five years.

Following a derailment in early March in which a BNSF Railway Co. crude oil train derailed and caught fire in Illinois, the company announced it would reduce the speed of trains carrying oil in some urban areas to as slow as 35 miles per hour (mph), Bloomberg reported.

BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK), voluntarily reduced the speeds to 40 mph and increased efforts to inspect tracks and rail cars more closely in 2014, after BNSF and other railroads identified high-risk areas in 46 urban areas in 2014. The lower 35 mph speed limit is an indication that the company will continue to evaluate how effective the changes it implements are at preventing derailments.

Other safety steps BNSF took include implementing wider use of monitors to detect overheated wheel bearings on rail cars, with monitors placed every 10 miles on crude-by-rail routes along critical waterways instead of the current 40-mile spacing, Bloomberg said. BNSF will also inspect track more often on crude train routes and reduce the tolerance for pulling out rail cars that register on wheel-impact detectors.

Industry groups are doing their part to increase CBR safety as well. API developed an education module to help first responders safely address derailments when they occur, said Jack Gerard, president and CEO, during a March press briefing.

“As the U.S. has become the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas, shipments of crude by rail have increased,” he said. “North America’s freight railroads move 99.998% of hazardous materials to their destination without incident, but the oil and natural gas industry’s goal for safety is always zero incidents.”

API, the AAR and member companies of both have created a course to help firefighters and other first responders in the event of a derailment, Gerard said.

“Participants will learn about the characteristics of crude oil, the rail cars in which it is shipped, and the considerations and strategies for spill response and firefighting that should be weighed,” he said. “The materials also highlight the importance of following training and the incident command system at all times.”

The associations partnered with the Federal Railroad Administration to identify states for the initial rollout of the program, which is free to hazmat and emergency response conferences throughout North America.

“Course offerings are already confirmed or being planned in more than 15 states,” Gerard said.

The More You Know

In a move that could make regulators’ jobs easier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that for the first time, it will provide monthly data on crude-by-rail movements.

In “This Week in Petroleum” published April 1, EIA said, “The new monthly time series of crude oil rail movements going back to January 2010 includes shipments to and from Canada, and dramatically reduces the absolute level of unaccounted-for volumes shown as ‘adjustments’ in EIA’s monthly balances for each region.”

Crude By Rail movements EIA

The EIA developed its new data series using information from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Canada’s National Energy Board, other third-party sources and EIA survey data. The agency expects the information to provide insights into oil-by-rail movements, EIA said March 30.

“The new crude-by-rail data provides a clearer picture on a mode of oil transportation that has experienced rapid growth in recent years and is of great interest to policy makers, the public, and industry,” said EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski.

Contact the author, Caryn Livingston, at clivingston@hartenergy.com.