CALIFORNIA: Oil-by-rail shipments to California plunged 69 percent last year compared with 2014, according to state data released on Jan. 28.
The California Energy Commission said California received 1,762,369 barrels of crude via train last year, or 4,828 barrels per day. That is down from 5,737,081 barrels in 2014, or 15,718 bpd. The tally fell throughout the year, starting at a high of 11,061 bpd in January to 949 bpd in December, the data showed.
Total amounts for both years are less than 1 percent of the average 1.7 million bpd of crude processed by California refineries. The highest amount moved by rail to the state in any month remains 1.18 million barrels, or 38,085 bpd, in December 2013, CEC data show.
In late 2014, oil-by-rail volumes began declining as oil prices fell and discounts of U.S. crudes to global crudes narrowed, siphoning profitability of moving crude via train.
