The railroads have benefited from the material needs of the Marcellus Shale Formation ( Pennsylvaina and that area), and of course, the Bakken Formation in North Dakota, Montana, and the Canadian Provinces of Saskachewan, and Manitoba.
“Permian’s Wolfcamp formation called biggest shale oil field in U.S.”
Nov.17.2016By Brittany Sowacke/ Bloomberg News & By Joe Carroll of Bloomberg News
Now there has apparently been reported a ‘new’ field in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The Wolfcamp Formation of Shale oil.
FTA:"…In a troubled oil world, the Permian Basin is the gift that keeps on giving.
One portion of the giant field, known as the Wolfcamp formation, was found to hold 20 billion barrels of oil trapped in four layers of shale beneath West Texas. That’s almost three times larger than North Dakota’s Bakken play and the single largest U.S. unconventional crude accumulation ever assessed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At current prices, that oil is worth almost $900 billion.
The estimate lends credence to the assertion from Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield that the Permian’s shale could hold as much as 75 billion barrels, making it second only to Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field. Irving-based Pioneer has been increasing its production targets all year as drilling in the Wolfcamp
While the Permian shales of Texas may hold almost as much oil as the big Saudi Arabian field, the tight shale oil is much harder to recover, and much of it will never be recovered. Also the Permian field has existing pipeline networks.
The point I had noted in my OP was that, although this area might be ‘currently active’; there are several mentions of the horizontal drilling [ie:fracing] in the area, and the success that it is having.
My thought was that those activities require large quantities of drill pipe, and frac sand, as well as other bulk type supplies. Possibly, also some adjunct rail transport by tanks , to supliment the pipelines? Seems like a pretty good opportunity for the area railroads to build on(?)
Sam, I should have picked up on your phrasing of the “material” needs of the oil fields. Yes the rails carry lots of frac sand. They also carry drilling mud from Wyoming (bentonite). I would not be suprised they carry some pipe, but most pipe tends to be trucked. The drill pipe is carried with the rig from one drill project to the next, and casing pipe needs depend on outcome of the well (gusher or dry hole) and are extremely time sensitive. I know some crude oil was carried by rail in the Texas/NM area, but never reached the levels of the Bakken. Nevertheless, shale development has been good to the rails.
We cant allow this to be developed or the atmosphere will burn off and the oceans will boil off into space due to global warming. This will be bad for light and commuter rail as gas will be cheap and will be a good exscuse not to build more green train lines.President Obama should declare this a National Park by excutive order before its too late.
Johnny: I suspect your question was rhetorical and you knew the answer before it was put forward… [^o)]
RME’s was a more than adequate response.[:-^]
I fully expected that this topic was laying myself open to those who would possibly choose to make it either political, or off topical, or both…and potentially very controversial in some ‘circles’.
The facts seem to be that these large petroleum production fields have, in the past created opporrtunities for railroad companies in the areas of their discoveries, and outside their locales, for transportation to users. Frac sand being a major item for railroads…In this area both BNSF and UPR seem to host on a regular basis unit trains of closed hopper cars (loaded and empty returning for reloading) of the type used to transport heavy bulk items like cement, and sand.
There have been articles relating to how the Class 1 railroads and shortlines in Pennsylvania and Ohio have benefited
The sun and consequently the earth goes thru heating and cooling cycles. As science has shown the whole southern area of the US all the way to the Columbus - Macon - Augusta was once the shore line.
A mini ice age occurred just 10,000 years ago. Wooly manmouths went extent. Can this be another cycle who knows ? What causes this sun and global warming? Jury is still out for this poster.
Blue Streak 1: Not to worry! your troubles will only start when the Salt water levels rise in the Chattahoochee, or it starts to cut a channel towards the Flint. Then, you need to get the row boat concession for Noonan… [:-^]
Can’t tell you about the weather predictibility of the deceased wooly mamouths… Wooly Worms, maybe…Check with Murphy Siding, They get colder, faster in his neck of the woods. [4:-)]
[By the way:; I have also learned the color of that fuzz is very important! Brown/reddish colors signal a milder winter where the black fuzz signals a colder winter. A few years ago I also found out about the white wooly worms! Did you know that white fuzz means blizzard…]
I travel through this area regularly. You see long lines of frac sand hoppers at team tracks in Midland and Odessa along I-20 (north side of road), as well as tank cars of acid in places and, as noted, special cars to carry drilling mud.
