February 26, 2012 [Platts] - Rangeland Energy has again expanded the capacity of its independent Bakken crude oil rail terminal in North Dakota to meet quickly growing demand ahead of its delayed opening, slated for the second half of May, company President and CEO Chris Keene said Friday.
“Our market has expanded dramatically,” Keene said in a telephone interview.
The Sugar Land, Texas-based company has already inked long-term deals with Tesoro, Flint Hills and Sunoco Logistics, and is in the final stages for securing contracts with several other companies, he said.
“This business model is really playing out,” Keene said, describing the terminal as a “mini-Cushing”, that is already bringing buyers and sellers together. “[The terminal’s capacity] will be sold out before we go into service.”
The Crude Oil Terminal, or COLT, Hub, to be located in Williams County, will be the Williston Basin’s first independent, open-access terminal, and will provide over 100,000 b/d of takeaway capacity, according to Rangeland.
The terminal’s anticipated first quarter opening was postponed after the heavy rains of last May and June put construction 45 days behind schedule, Keene said. “It was a big mud pit,” he said.
The 300-acre site has added two more 120,000-barrel crude storage tanks to the existing three tanks of the same size at the terminal and its double concentric rail loops, each with nearly two miles of rail line, will be slated to handle two 120-car unit trains daily. Each car can carry 680 barrels of crude.
Though that means a potential of 14 unit trains per week, with up to 114,240 barrels/week possible, the actual volume is likely to be less given the constraints of the greater region’s rail system.
The terminal’s capacity had already been expanded in May from its original plans last February, to meet the demand for Bakken crude infrastructure.
The company has completed the 21-mile, 10-inch connector line that will transport from the COLT terminal 70,000 b/d of Bakken crude into the Enbridge and Tesoro pipeline systems at the Beaver Lodge/Ramberg junction, just south of Tioga, North Dakota.
A sixth 120,000-barrel storage tank has been added for the overall project, at that junction.
At the main terminal, three tanks have been completed and await hydro-testing in March, a fourth is under construction, and the fifth has just had its foundations placed, Keene said.
