Day 18: June 26, 2013

This morning, I kept reading articles from AAR and EIA. I located the most important crude oil rail loading facilities in North Dakota as it can be observed in FIG7. I had a especial interest in the Rangeland Energy's Crude Oil Loading Terminal, often called COLT (in the map is label as Inergy) because it can process up to 160,000 bbl/d. This is a considerable value as it is about one fifth of the total crude oil produced in North Dakota. Due to the importance of this facility I will take this point as the origin of my route.

After doing an analysis of most common crude oil destinations, (they vary significantly in response to market needs and price opportunities) originated in North Dakota, I found that the Gulf Coast is one of the top destinations as it is the area with more refineries. Hence, I decided that my route would go from the COLT loading facility in ND to the GT Omniport unloading facility in TX, which can up to 100,000 bbl/d. Both of this facilities are connected directly to BNSF. 

On the afternoon all the interns had a small discussion with Xiang to talk about what we have been doing for the past days and to explain and justify to the rest of the group the route that each of us chose to do our case study.

Moreover, today I have been thinking that in my risk quantitative analysis I want to take into account the effect of the speed of the rail. I think I can do this by using a speed-dependent CPR. Tomorrow, among other things, I will read a couple articles that Xiang has recommended me to have a better understanding of how I can include this parameter on the risk equation.

FIG7: Rail loading facilities of Crude oil in North Dakota.
Source: North Dakota Pipeline Authority 2013

Today:

-Find key origins and destinations of crude oil transportation               (done)
-Work on presentation of oil transportation by rail                             (done)
-Literature review on Railroad Hazmat Transportation                       (to be finished)

*-Decide the route of my case study                                                (done)

Next day:

-Create an outline of the different "udemy" modules
-Start to work on the "udemy" ppt (module 1 introduction)
-Read Xiangs article regarding Safety Effectiveness strategies for the Transportation of Hazardous Materials by rail 
-Determine the risk model to be used in the case study
-Literature review on Railroad Hazmat Transportation
-Safety group meeting (Jesus presentation)