WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- An industry trade group said 13,683 carloads of petroleum and petroleum products were carried on U.S. rail systems for the week ending Oct. 12.
The Association of American Railroads said that equated to about 9.5 million barrels of oil and marked a 15.3 percent increase from the previous week.
The AAR said a cumulative 551,089 carloads, or 385 million barrels of oil, were delivered by rail as of Oct. 12, a 35.4 percent increase from the same time last year.
An accelerating pace of oil production in the United States has placed a burden on existing pipeline capacity, industry officials say. Oil production has increased in part because of gains from states including Texas and North Dakota.
The North Dakota government said this week oil production in August, the last month for which statistics are available, was a record 911,242 barrels a day. Lynn Helms, director of the state government's oil and gas division, said "crude oil take-away capacity is expected to be adequate as long as rail deliveries to coastal refineries keep growing."
