pumpers wrote:Thanks. Does anyone know how to estimate how much diesel it takes to move those 80 (I think I read that is a common number for these trains?) tanks from North Dakota to NJ? Perhaps based on the number of miles and tons, or number of engines and hours, ... I wonder if the equivalent of one tank car is consumed just to get the oil here, or more. JS
I'll guess at an answer myself. I found on-line that CSX says it can move 1 ton of freight 500 miles on a gallon of diesel.
http://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-csx/ ... fficiency/. From the N. Dakota/Montana border to PHiladelphia is ~1800 miles by car by google maps, so estimate 2000 miles by rail (not quite so direct). So that is 4 gallons per ton to go Philadlephia. A gallon of crude is about 7 pounds, and a tank car is about 30,000 gallons. That is 210,000 net pounds, plus the empty car, so maybe 250,000 total (probably less than the 263,000 limit on many lines), or 125 tons per tank car. 100 tanks in a train is 12,500 tons. Multiply by 4 gallons of diesel used per ton, you get 50,000 gallons, slighly less than 2 tankloads. Then there is the return trip of empties (much lighter). So figure about 60,000 gallons or 2 tankloads per 100 tank train round trip, which means 2% of the oil transported (assuming crude and diesel are equivalent). In terms of $$$, 60,000 gallons x $4.00/gallon for diesel (maybe too high for bulk?) is $240,000 to move the 100 tanks! Wow. Did I make a mistake?
30,000 gallons in a tank is about 700 barrels. For 100 tanks, 70,000 barrels. THen the crude which was moved was worth, if you assume $70/barrel, about $5,000,000. So about 5% of value of the oil is just fuel to move it.
JS
I wonder what the cost is of all the crew time, share of track maintenance and engine time, tank car wear and tear, overhead, etc compared to that. All together, I would guess at least as much as the fuel. Anyone know what the actual cost per gallon (or tank car) is roughtly to move this oil by train to NJ/Philadelphia, or roughtly what the railroads charge?