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Permalink Reply by JHH on March 7, 2013 at 7:32

That would be nice... but remember... Mr. Buffet is making a TON of money every day because there aren't enough pipelines available to transport oil from the Bakken Shale in the U.S. and from Canada and perhapS from the Eagle Ford.  His railroad is transporting huge amounts of oil... and i wonder what's safer... the railroad or a pipeline.  No one is talking about that... especially the environmentalists. Oh... i forgot about big rigs... they transport a lot too.

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Permalink Reply by ledlights on March 7, 2013 at 8:49

I have not seen a discussion of the comparative safety of pipelines and rail transport of oil.

More pipelines are on the way. But Buffet seems to think that the need for rail transport of oil will remain in strength for some time (I just read another article about higher density drilling being tried in the Bakken that they hope could double the % of recoverable oil from the current estimates which I think run around 10% of the total oil there). If this experiment proves successful why does it need to be limited to Bakken oil transport? Isn't the relative economy of engine fuels involved similar for all rail transport or is the profitability of the oil transport particularly needed to fund the initial switch-over? Or is there something about the nearby availability of NG that aids the economy of this move? They mention LNG - I suppose they intend to create facilities to make it nearby or do they already exist there or are they planning to ship it in or can they simply refuel at the oil offload destinations? What kind of range will one of these NG locomotives have?

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on March 7, 2013 at 9:28

The railroads  haul stuff that is way  more dangerous  than NG or oil.  The pulling motors on trains run on electricity. They now use diesel powerd generators so the only thing that needs  changing  is the engine. They have a rolling supply line for fuel and all they need is a side track to turn into a refueling station or just  haul a tank car load right behind the engines.

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Permalink Reply by Herman (Chuck) Plonnigs, III on March 7, 2013 at 10:57

BNSF engines are pulling the tanker trains I’ve seen since last summer.

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Permalink Reply by JHH on March 7, 2013 at 13:34

Mr Buffet does know how to make money more than anyone around... and he seems to do it at the right time... and has a knack to preserve the way he makes money.  You can't argue with his success!

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