WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. rail delivery of petroleum and petroleum products was up 13.3 percent last week from the same period in 2013, the American Association of Railroads said.
The AAR said Thursday 15,708 carloads of petroleum and petroleum products, or about 10.9 million barrels of oil, were delivered on the U.S. rail system for the week ending Jan. 18.
Since Jan. 1, the AAR said, 43,556 carloads, or about 30 million barrels of oil, were delivered on the U.S. rail system, a 12.7 percent increase from the same period in 2012.
The AAR said its total for U.S. operations excludes deliveries from the Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway.
Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada, said Thursday rail was playing an important role for oil transit while the industry waits for new pipeline capacity to come online. TransCanada this week started sending crude oil through its Gulf Coast project, a pipeline running south from Cushing, Okla., to refineries in that region.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its January market report U.S. oil production averaged 8.5 million barrels per day this year, a 13.3 percent increase from last year's average.
