The success of drilling technology in North America's Mid Continent has lead to a huge increase in crude oil production. In 2010, crude oil production in North Dakota was about 310 thousand barrels per day (kbd). This year, production is expected to reach 1 million barrels per day. Light sweet crude oil from the Mid Continent is

attractive to refiners because it is produced domestically and is cheaper than similar quality crude oil imported from abroad. Indeed, this low cost supply has played a key role in the survival of a number of East Coast refineries.

The increase in production has changed crude oil logistics around the U.S. To make up for the lack of pipeline capacity, producers have turned to moving crude-by-rail (CBR) from North Dakota's Bakken field to refineries on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts. Rather than wait for the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, Canadian producers of heavy bitumen and conventional crude oils are also using CBR to move their product to market.

In the wake of the CBR boom, large numbers of new CBR loading facilities have been announced. Refiners like the optionality that CBR creates because they have flexibility to send the crude to any of their refineries. Currently, East Coast markets are getting over 500 kbd of CBR from the Midwest. Refineries in the Pacific Northwest are processing about 100 kbd of CBR. Their colleagues in the Gulf Coast get about 400 kbd.