Nutshell-Overview Crude-by-Rail (CBR) has been a savior for North American producers seeking higher returns for heavily discounted crudes caused by a lack of pipeline take-away capacity. And CBR, once again, is on the rise. North American shipments of petroleum and petroleum products are up over 10% year-to-date compared to 2017. In May 2018, nearly 200,000 barrels per day were shipped by rail from Canada to the U.S., nearly five times that of June 2016. But, the story of CBR is really about how price differentials became so large in certain regions. For Western Canadian producers, intense anti-pipeline opposition, regulatory changes , legal limbo, political tensions and foreign interference from well funded U.S. environmental lobbies have muddled new projects. In Western Canada, new export capacity has been politically denied ( Northern Gateway ), cancelled ( Energy East ), or is still in the process of getting the darn shovels in […]