Initially, the facility will load up to 15 rail cars a day – each with a 600-barrel capacity – for the first customer, San Antonio, Texas-based NuStar Energy LP.

NuStar is one of the largest asphalt refiners and marketers in the U.S., and its second-largest independent liquids-terminal operator, with a large pipeline, storage tank network and a fuels refinery.

“As we go forward this year, we will be reviewing the facility and will be working with NuStar Energy to determine how much additional capacity will be required,” CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said.

NuStar chief executive Curt Anas-tasio said in a statement that “moving Canadian crude through CP’s North American network is a great complement to our asset base, which includes a large and expanding fleet of 1,700 coiled and insulated rail cars.”

NuStar believes that “moving undiluted heavy Canadian crude by rail to coastal markets is an economically viable solution that brings added value to the end users, as well as the producers in Canada,” Anasta-sio added.

Canadian Pacific connects the energy hubs of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the U.S. Midwest (including the prolific Bakken formation in North Dakota) to NuStar’s terminals in the Northeast U.S. and Gulf Coast. The Lloydminster facility is operated by Torq Transloading.

In addition to the new facility near Lloydminster, CP continues to transport oil from other facilities in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The “transloading” process involves the use of a specialized pump and closed-loop hose system, which safely transfers the oil from trucks to purpose-designed rail cars.
Of the 140 million tonnes of freight shipped annually by CP, hundreds of thousands of carloads are directly related to energy production and distribution.

This includes crude oil, sulphur, fuels, diluents and materials key to the energy industry, such as pipe and frac sand.