Trains carrying Bakken crude pass through Fort Worth, records show

As many as four trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota pass through the Fort Worth area each week on their way to the Gulf Coast, according to documents filed with the state by BNSF Railway.

The Texas Department of Public Safety released information about crude oil trains crossing the state on Friday after the attorney general’s office last week dismissed one railroad’s arguments for keeping them confidential.

The documents show that Fort Worth-based BNSF and Kansas City Southern, based in Kansas City, Mo., operate trains carrying 1 million gallons or more of Bakken crude oil through Texas.

BNSF brings the trains south into Texas on two routes, one of which terminates near Galveston and another that continues into Louisiana. In addition to the trains passing through Fort Worth, as many as six operate through Houston, according to the most recent of three reports, dated Sept. 30, 2014.

Kansas City Southern operates as many as five trains a month into Nederland from Kansas City, according to a document dated Aug. 22.

Bakken oil, which is extracted from shale rock formations through hydraulic fracturing, has enabled North Dakota to become the nation’s No. 2 oil producer behind Texas. About 60 percent of the state’s oil production moves by rail.

After a series of derailments, including one that killed 47 people in Quebec, regulators concluded that Bakken oil shipped by rail posed a higher risk to public safety than other kinds of oil. The oil industry has disputed the finding.

The U.S. Transportation Department required railroads to provide the information to state emergency officials last May after a derailment and fire in Lynchburg, Va.

Railroads initially asked states to sign agreements to keep the reports confidential, but many states determined that the documents could be released to news organizations that requested them under open records laws.

McClatchy, the Star-Telegram’s parent company, requested the documents in July. The Texas Department of Public Safety sought the opinion of the state attorney general’s office before releasing them and gave the railroads an opportunity to object. Kansas City Southern argued in a December letter that release of the reports would compromise security, harm customers and help competitors.

In its ruling last week, the attorney general’s office rejected those assertions and ordered the documents released to McClatchy and other news organizations.

Texas joins more than 20 states that have released the reports in full, including the number of trains per week, their routes and the counties through which they pass.

Other states, however, released only partial details or withheld the reports entirely. One of those was West Virginia, where a CSX oil train derailed last week. Several tank cars exploded, one house was destroyed and more than 100 residents were kept out of their homes for four days.

This story was originally published February 28, 2015 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Trains carrying Bakken crude pass through Fort Worth, records show."