Meritage Midstream’s first 99-car crude shipment is loaded at Black Thunder Terminal in Wyoming
Thirteen months ago, Denver’s privately held Meritage Midstream announced a joint venture with Arch Coal (ticker: ACI), of St. Louis, Missouri, to form Black Thunder Terminal, LLC, to develop a rail terminal to provide crude oil handling, storage, rail loading and marketing services to crude oil producers in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and downstream refiners.
On June 20, 2014 the first crude oil unit train loaded at the Black Thunder Terminal and departed via the Union Pacific railway for an east coast refinery. “All of the train’s tank cars are new and meet the stringent safety standards adopted earlier this year by the American Association of Railroads,” Meritage said in a news release.
Meritage operates the crude oil terminal, which is located on property east of Arch Coal’s active operations. Arch contributed reclaimed land, rail switching and loop and other existing infrastructure assets at its Black Thunder coal mining complex in Campbell County, Wyoming.
The Black Thunder Terminal has the ability to increase outbound shipping capacity to 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day and loading capability of up to 60,000 bbls/day. Significant acreage is available for further expansions. A planned Phase II facility will include up to four 100,000-barrel storage tanks and a 15-car rack system capable of loading 15 to 18 cars per hour. Target total loading time is 15 hours. High-speed loading service is expected to be available in 2015.
Meritage holds a 60 percent majority interest in Black Thunder Terminal, and Arch holds a 40 percent equity interest. The terminal is served by the BNSF and Union Pacific railway companies.
Meritage expects to ship more than 1.2 million barrels of crude oil through the remainder of 2014.
