Workers stand next to water service tanks at an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. hydraulic fracturing site north of Dacono, Colorado. Bloomberg News
The energy industry's top trade group called on U.S. oil producers to do more frequent and better testing of crude oil before loading it on to trains in the wake of several high-profile accidents.
The American Petroleum Institute, a Washington, D.C., organization that lobbies on behalf of the nation's big oil companies and sets industrywide standards, on Thursday issued its first-ever set of recommended practices for testing oil for rail transport.
The recommendations come as rail shipments of crude have soared and highly-volatile crudes have been cited as a danger in oil-train derailments.
One of the recommendations is for companies to use an improved test to determine the temperature at which the crude starts emitting combustible vapors. These vapors have been the focus on intense scrutiny and government regulation since July 2013, when a train full of North Dakota crude exploded and killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.
"The development of standards is a major part of API's ongoing work to enhance safety throughout our industry," said Jack Gerard, the group's president and chief executive in a prepared statement.
The federal government called for better, more regular testing earlier this year, saying that oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale appeared to be more combustible than crudes from other oil fields. Energy companies in North Dakota have disputed the assertion their oil is more dangerous than the very light oil pumped in Texas and some other areas.
The Wall Street Journal previously has reported that crude from North Dakota's Bakken Shale, as well as other oils that are produced by fracking dense shale formations, contain high levels of combustible compounds, including methane and butane.
Improved testing should help improve safety, some experts say. The composition of oil, which can vary depending in part on where it is produced, "determines if the tank car explodes or just catches fire in a derailment," said Matt Thomas, chief executive of JP3 Measurement LLC, an Austin, Texas, company that builds oil-measurement equipment.
The new guidelines suggest emphatically that every batch of crude oil for shipment on rail be tested. "Testing should be conducted prior to offering the crude oil for rail transportation," according to the API guidelines.
Investigations in Canada and the U.S. have found some shippers' paperwork and testing was incomplete. In addition to improved testing, the federal government has called for a rapid phase out of thousands of railroad tank cars within two years after it adopts new rules for the carrying hazardous liquids.
Greg Saxton, chief engineer of Greenbrier Companies Inc., a manufacturer of freight cars, said improving the tanker cars is critical for safety. "We believe they need more puncture resistance and more resistance to spilling," he said, "because the more you spill the worse it gets."