Shipments of crude oil, refined products and biofuels by barge from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico — mostly crude oil from North Dakota and Canada — rebounded slightly in the second quarter, according to Department of Energy statistics.
“And more of it is moving east,” said Sandor Toth, publisher, River Transport News. “And there are more competitive options, more model options.”
To that point, moving Bakken oil by rail has become a popular way to transport petroleum products, particularly between coasts, but barge companies are still getting plenty of work out of it. North Dakota crude set a record quarterly high of 95.1 million bbls. during this year’s second quarter, according to the DOE. Rail can’t carry it all and proposed pipelines are not targeted for east and west.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in September that the record corn and soybean crops it was expecting would be even larger than initially predicted.
With more rail space being taken up by crude oil products, farmers are looking for other modes of transportation. That should open up some options for barge grain carriers, even though demand is down. “Export demand isn’t as strong as other years,” said Toth. “Nobody is beating down our door. There’s no shortage of grain overseas.”
Patience will be a virtue in this case, Toth said. “It will eventually move, but I expect that it will sit for awhile.”
— Ken Hocke
