Tesoro Corp. unit Tesoro Refining & Marketing Co. LLC (TRMC) reported it will begin to replace older cars in its crude oil rail car fleet with post-October 2011 design, CPC 1232-compliant rail cars, after evaluating rail car safety features.
Specifically, TRMC said, the company is “committing that its rail car fleet will consist entirely of the newer DOT-111 design rail cars equipped with reinforced shields and relief devices by mid-2014.”
The company added, “While this action applies to the vast majority of crude oil deliveries into Tesoro facilities, beginning in mid-2014 Tesoro will also make rail car design a part of its commercial considerations with all business partners who may ship crude oil into company-owned facilities,” which includes Tesoro’s 120,000 b/d Anacortes, Wash., refinery as well as the proposed Tesoro-Savage Energy Distribution Terminal (TSEDT) in Vancouver, Wash.
The upgrades to Tesoro’s rail car fleet will be completed before construction of TSEDT would begin and before the terminal would start accepting crude oil deliveries, the company said, adding, “Because Tesoro is underpinning the initial capacity of the facility, many of the crude oil deliveries handled at the terminal at start-up will be owned by Tesoro and will arrive in Tesoro rail cars.”
