(Source: Canadian Pacific Railway press release, February 2, 2012)
CALGARY, Alberta — Canadian Pacific today announced that, by leveraging its North Main Line infrastructure, the company is now shipping crude oil by rail from a new transload facility near Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. This new facility is a key enhancement to CP’s growing energy portfolio. It accommodates the initial transload and transportation needs of NuStar Energy LP (NYSE: NS), with a further planned expansion in 2012.
“Moving Canadian crude through CP’s North American network is a great complement to our asset base, which includes terminals and a large and expanding fleet of 1,700 coiled and insulated rail cars,” said NuStar President and CEO Curt Anastasio. ”We believe 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.”
“This new facility and the planned expansion in 2012 represent an exciting growth opportunity for CP’s energy portfolio,” said CP Energy and Merchandise Vice President Tracy Robinson. “CP offers a flexible, reliable and efficient method of transporting crude oil and other energy-related products to emerging markets and we are proud to be partnering with NuStar to meet its growing transportation needs.”
”Lloydminster is highly regarded for innovation in the energy sector and this initiative is one more opportunity to shine positive light on this region. Torq Transloading and Canadian Pacific are two solid organizations with a healthy balanced focus on innovation, efficiency, safety and economic growth joining forces to serve the needs of industry leader NuStar Energy LP. We are excited to see where this may stimulate more transload facility activities in our City,” commented Mayor Jeff Mulligan.
Canadian Pacific is the only North American railway to serve the Alberta Industrial Heartland, the Bakken Formation and the Marcellus Shale. In addition, CP is the only Class I railway to connect the energy hubs of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the U.S. Midwest to the Northeast U.S. The Lloydminster facility, operated by Torq Transloading, enables CP to transport oil by rail to NuStar’s terminals in the Northeast U.S. and Gulf Coast.
In addition to the new facility near Lloydminster, CP continues to transport oil from other transload 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 tons of freight shipped annually on 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.