US crude by rail shipments tumble as oil-price spread narrows

Prices, pipelines and declining production will push volumes even lower

US shipments of crude by rail have almost halved this year due to the narrowing spread between domestic and international crude prices, new pipelines and declining oil production in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Between January and May average daily movements of oil by rail tumbled by 45%, compared to the same period in 2015, down to just 443,000 b/d. On a monthly basis average shipments of crude by rail within the US plunged by 11.86m barrels - over 42% - from the same period a year earlier, down to around 16.2m barrels, according to Energy Information Administration data. In April US crude shipments by rail fell to a four-year low of 14.57m barrels (around 471,000 barrels a day). That's arou