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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Tiny Texas Town, Railroad Surge From New Oil Boom .
By RUSSELL GOLD
BARNHART, Texas—It was a railroad that brought this tiny town into
existence in 1910, when it was named after the stationmaster, William F.
Barnhart. Today that same railroad is putting the town on the map again—as
an unlikely hub of the new American oil boom.
Crude oil production in West Texas is&#
8197;surging again, and a little railroad that
nearly died a decade ago is a&#
8197;big reason why. WSJ's Russell Gold
reports.
.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has created a surge of oil production
from the Permian Basin here, as drillers use water, chemicals and sand to
crack open oil-bearing rocks deep underground. The heart of the West Texas
oil region now produces about 550,000 barrels of oil a day, up 38% from
three years ago.
That has given new life to Barnhart, an unincorporated town 250 miles west
of Austin with only 200 residents, a post office, one taco truck and a
filling station called the Big Red Barn. It has brought increased spending
from oil field and rail workers, even as most of them have looked for
housing in other nearby cities.
The turn in fortunes has been especially dramatic for the 113-year-old South
Orient Railroad, which passes through Barnhart on its nearly 400-mile trek
from Presidio on the Mexican border to a junction north of San Angelo, Texas.
Traffic on the railroad, which had been on the verge of extinction several
times in the past century, has tripled in the past five years, to more than
10,000 rail cars a year, and is on pace to double in 2013. That is because
the millions of pounds of fracking sand coming into this region—and a
fairly large portion of the crude oil exiting it—are now riding its rails.
Oil Boom Brings Life Back to Texas Town
It was a railroad that brought Barnhart, Texas, into existence in 1910, and
today that same railroad is putting the town on the map again—as an
unlikely hub of the new American oil boom. See photos of the town and the
railroad.
Mr. Zuniga climbed over a rail car after connecting an inbound train to
empty cars at the rail yard.
..
Barnhart "is the center of our petroleum universe," said Elizabeth
Grindstaff, a vice president of sales at Texas Pacifico Transportation Ltd.,
which operates the rail line. "My bosses call it the belly button."
The town, located on the eastern edge of the Permian oil field, is now chock
-a-block with rail cars. Dozens of train hoppers were parked on newly
constructed sidings off Highway 67 one recent day as their cargo of sand was
being unloaded onto trucks for delivery to new oil wells.
A train with 80 empty tanker cars rumbled through for three minutes, heading
to a year-old terminal the Houston-based EOG ResourcesEOG +2.41% built just
outside of town. The tankers, once they are filled with about $5.5 million
of oil, will make a 400-mile journey to Houston-area refiners.
Fracking has reinvigorated U.S. oil production, raising output in several
parts of the country so quickly the pipeline infrastructure normally used to
carry oil is inadequate. Railroads have stepped in, becoming an important
link in the crude transportation business in places such as North Dakota and
West Texas.
The South Orient is unusual for its ownership—it belongs to the state of
Texas—and its history. The first West Texas oil boom began with a gusher a
couple hundred feet from the tracks.
The railroad was nearly erased from maps in the 1990s, when its operator at
the time filed paperwork with the federal government to sell the metal rails
for scrap. The company argued there was too little traffic to invest in
needed upgrades, including replacing steel rails on a 150-mile stretch that
dated from the 1910s.
The state of Texas objected, arguing that the line could become a vital link
in U.S.-Mexico trade only a few years after the North American Free Trade
Agreement was signed. The Texas legislature appropriated $6 million to buy
the aging track in 1999. It partnered with Texas Pacifico, a subsidiary of
mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico SAB, and they began fixing up parts of the
railroad.
But their dreams of Nafta traffic never materialized; the last train crossed
the bridge over the Rio Grande in 2006. Two years later, the wooden portion
of the bridge burned down. By 2010, Texas Pacifico reported a net operating
loss of nearly $500,000.
Then came the discovery of the Cline Shale and other rock formations in the
Permian that yield large amounts of oil when fracked. Oil drillers suddenly
needed sand at well sites and a quick way to get the oil to refineries in an
area without adequate pipelines. So the struggling South Orient was drafted
into service.
Local business is booming; the state collected 61% more sales tax in Irion
County in the third quarter than a year earlier. While Barnhart isn't seeing
a surge in new permanent residents, area businesses benefit from a workday
surge in population as workers drive in from places like San Angelo and Big
Lake, a town of 3,000 about 18 miles west of Barnhart.
Yet the boom also has caused problems. When trains stopped to unload sand in
Big Lake, they blocked emergency services from reaching houses south of
downtown until a new rail siding could be built. When the wind blows from
the south in Barnhart, unloading the tiny pebbles used in fracking can
create small sandstorms that reach the few houses nearby.
Barnhart "used to be a laid back little community, everyone was calm and
quiet. Now it's all hustle and bustle," lamented rancher Buck Owens, 80, who
raises goats and cattle on 19,000 acres. "The traffic is out of hand. They
are speeding, and if you don't look out you'll be run over."
Mr. Owens, who has lived a couple miles south of Barnhart his entire life,
said hiring ranch hands has become nearly impossible due to new competition
for laborers. "They're all working in the oil field," he said.
Ron Galloway, a county commissioner, said there is so much traffic on local
roads that "it's like people leaving a Friday night football game."
The traffic would clearly be worse without the railroad, however, since more
trucks would be needed to haul sand and oil. Drew Darby, a Republican state
legislator who represents Barnhart and chairs a subcommittee that oversees
the state's transportation budget, says Texas now looks smart for saving the
South Orient. "Quite frankly, we got lucky," he said. | a**e
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【在 l****z 的大作中提到】
: Tiny Texas Town, Railroad Surge From New Oil Boom .
: By RUSSELL GOLD
: BARNHART, Texas—It was a railroad that brought this tiny town into
: existence in 1910, when it was named after the stationmaster, William F.
: Barnhart. Today that same railroad is putting the town on the map again—as
: an unlikely hub of the new American oil boom.
: Crude oil production in West Texas is&#
: 8197;surging again, and a little railroad that
: nearly died a decade ago is a&#
: 8197;big reason why. WSJ's Russell Gold
|
|
