Railroad crossing: increasing oil and fuel shipments in North America.

摘要

As Mexican and Venezuelan crude imports into die US decline, Canadian crude is more in demand, but pipeline botdenecks have been slowing down growth in deliveries. Railroad deliveries of crude from Canada averaged 130K b/d in 2017, but Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. believe they may hit 350K b/d in 2018 and 400K b/d in 2019. Western Canada Select (WCS) has been trading at attractive discounts to WTI, further stoking interest from Gulf Coast refiners. Even with railroad costs as high as $14/bbl, there is incentive to ship since the spread has been exceeding $20/bbl. RR companies, however, have expressed an unwillingness to add expensive capacity since pipelines are expected to be repaired and new ones built.