- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) said late last week that it would scrap plans to build an oil train terminal in Washington state that would have taken more than 400K barrels per week of Bakken and other inland crudes.
- Shell said the conditions of the global crude market and a tight capital environment made its project uneconomic; the rail facility would have connected to an existing rail line and supplied Shell's 145K bbl/day Anacortes refinery with light crude from North Dakota.
- Also last week, city planners of San Luis Obispo, Calif., rejected a rail terminal proposed by Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), two weeks after the city council of Benicia rejected Valero Energy's (NYSE:VLO) proposed 70K bbl/day facility.
- Despite the latest setbacks, Wood Mackenzie analyst Jonathan Garrett says low prices are still a bigger concern for North Dakota producers than transportation.