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The amount of crude oil and petroleum products transported by U.S. railroads in 2012’s first half jumped 38 percent year over year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The large gain shows railroads are playing a more vital role in transporting crude oil to refineries, especially oil produced in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation, EIA officials said in a prepared statement.

Citing Association of American Railroads (AAR) data, EIA officials said the number of tank cars hauling crude oil and petroleum products totaled close to 241,000 in the first half compared with 174,000 in the same 2011 period. In June, rail deliveries of crude oil and petroleum products jumped 51 percent to 42,000 units, with the weekly average reaching a record-high 10,500 units.
 
In 2009, crude oil accounted for 3 percent of the combined deliveries in the oil and petroleum products category tracked by the AAR. Now, crude oil accounts for about 30 percent, EIA officials said.
 
“Much of the growth in shipping oil by rail is due to the rise in North Dakota's oil production, which has more than tripled in the past three years,” they said. “North Dakota surpassed California in December 2011 to become the third-biggest oil producing state and took over the No. 2 spot from Alaska in March 2012.”

BNSF Railway Co. is the largest rail transporter of crude oil in the United States, moving one-third of Bakken oil production with unit trains carrying up to 85,000 barrels of oil, EIA officials said. The Class I’s carloads of crude oil and petroleum products climbed 60 percent in the first half.