February 12, 2014 [OPIS] - Dakota Plains Holdings Inc. said on Tuesday that its current Pioneer Rail Terminal throughput in North Dakota is expected to average 38,600 b/d of crude in February, its highest rate to date.
This is compared with the annual average for 2013 of 24,000 b/d. Forecast throughput for the year is expected to average 45,000 b/d, comprised of joint venture-marketed and third-party volumes.
Dakota Plains has previously said that the high transloading volume at that terminal was attributed to the wide Brent-WTI price spread, which helps keep Bakken crude price relatively low compared with Brent.
The Pioneer Rail Terminal, a 192-acre site with two 8,300-foot loop tracks each capable of handling 120-car unit trains, began loading cars and sending trains in January 2014.
The crude loading rail terminal was commissioned in December 2013.
The Pioneer Rail Terminal began receiving third-party transloading volumes in January 2014 to supplement joint venture-marketed volumes. Going forward, the Pioneer Rail Terminal can receive increased third-party volumes.
Meanwhile, construction of the UNIMIN frac sand automated terminal, a 750,000-ton-per-year capacity frac sand storage and transloading facility announced in August 2013, remains on schedule for completion in May 2014.
Comprising 8,000 tons of sand storage and four new ladder tracks, operations began on an interim basis in late January 2014 with full sand railcars now on site and direct transloading onto third-party trucks expected to commence in the coming weeks.
The trucking joint venture with Prairie Field Services expanded its fleet to 29 trucks to accommodate third-party volumes in addition to its share of joint venture-marketed volumes. Approximately 21,000 b/d are being hauled.
Dakota Plains is in the process of applying for a listing on a national stock exchange, targeting a completion date in the second quarter of 2014.
Dakota Plains is an integrated midstream energy company, which competes through its 50/50 joint ventures to provide customers with crude oil offtake services that include marketing, transloading and trucking of crude oil and related products.
Direct and indirect assets include a proprietary trucking fleet, over 1,000 railroad tank cars, and the Pioneer Terminal transloading facility centrally located in Mountrail County, N.D., for Bakken- and Three Forks-related E&P activity.
