The terminal will initially load 30,000 b/d of crude oil into railcars — the equivalent of more than 50 tank cars’ worth — starting in the second quarter of 2013.

The facility will have the potential to accommodate a unit train of 100 tank cars, with each train carrying approximately 60,000 b/d of crude oil. “This project, combined with 410,000 bbl of oil storage currently under construction at our terminal in Cromer — a six-fold increase in existing capacity — will provide us with access to alternative North American markets for Williston Basin crude oil over CN’s network at a time when there is inadequate pipeline takeaway capacity,” said Bryan Lankester, president of Tundra Energy Marketing.   

“Our Cromer location at the most easterly point of crude oil production in Canada should provide a market advantage to our crude oil producers and shippers,” he added. CN said that it expects to move more than 30,000 carloads of crude oil in 2012, and it believes that it has the scope to double this crude oil business next year.   

Tundra Energy Marketing handles crude oil on behalf of producers in the Williston Basin, including its parent company, Tundra Oil & Gas Partnership, which has been an active driller in the area for the past 32 years. 

CN and its operating railway subsidiaries spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key metropolitan areas of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.