Indigo Resources Ltd plans to build a rail to barge facility in Osceola, Arkansas, to improve movement of Bakken and Canadian crude to Gulf Coast markets.
A 610-acre site at mile marker 784.5 on the Mississippi River will have 3,000 ft of river frontage, three sets of manifolds, five rail loops, and 16 miles of track with room for 100+ car unit trains. The site has direct rail access to Minot and Tioga, with shipments moving as much as three times faster than long rail hauls to the Gulf Coast. Increased speeds lead to higher tank car utilization or to put it another way - cost savings. Deliveries are expected to take less than 10 days and savings is estimated at $1-2 per barrel compared to rail alone.
Tomas Fuentes, project manager, stated "Unit trains will be able to come directly from Minot or Tioga without hitting any rail yards or switching stations."
A total of 15 refineries with 3.4 million barrels per day of demand is downstream of the site on the Mississippi River.
The terminal will have the capacity to unload two unit trains of light crude per day and three to four manifest trains of bitumen per week.
"Combining rail and barge will lower the overall cost to the market" explains John Park, Director of Indigo Resources Ltd. "Plus due to our location, Indigo will be able to turn around the unit trains faster and in today`s high cost of rolling stock, this is an added bonus."
The terminal will allow for crude movement to the lower Mississippi at cheaper rates than rail. The terminal will have a total of two million barrels of storage capacity:
- 4 x 250,000 bbl tanks
- 10 x 100,000 bbl tanks
The facility will be flexible enough to handle multiple crude types and Indigo Resources expects deliveries from Canada, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013 and the facility should be in service in late 2014.
Read more at indigoresourcesltd.com