The recently completed facility, which accommodated its first unit train this week, is the first rail terminal in the area capable of loading multiple crude types, including crude from the Bakken, Powder River Basin, Niobrara, Southwest Wyoming, Big Horn Basin and Canada.
Strobel Starostka Transfer has been selected to provide all operations and logistics at the facility including the hiring and training of all personnel, rail integration and all other logistics such as facility maintenance and infrastructure inspection. SST currently employs more than 20 at the terminal, with plans to increase to a total of 60 employees in 2014.
Strobel Starostka Transfer’s affiliate, Strobel Starostka Construction, served as Eighty Eight Oil’s design build partner for the project and broke ground on the facility in May. Located on BNSF’s main line near the Guernsey crude oil pipeline hub, the facility features three loop tracks with universal entry and exit from each direction. The terminal has an initial throughput capacity of up to 80,000 barrels per day and includes two designated loading tracks with separate racks – allowing two trains to be loaded simultaneously with the same or different crude types.
"This is such a unique facility and we are so pleased to have been able to join the project at its inception, design it, construct it and see it all the way through to continual operation," said Steve Strobel, chief executive officer of Strobel Starostka Transfer and Strobel Starostka Construction.
The new rail terminal is directly connected to Eighty-Eight Oil’s existing Guernsey crude oil terminal, which has 2 million barrels of storage capacity and access to multiple crude types, including Bakken crude, Wyoming sweet, Wyoming sour, Wyoming asphaltic and all pipeline-quality Canadian grades.
Image: Terminal operator Strobel Starostka Transfer loads the first unit train to come through Eighty-Eight Oil’s crude oil terminal in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Photo: Courtesy of Business Wire.
