Oil spilled in Canadian train derailment

Two rails cars that were included in a derailment in Saskatchewan lost their entire oil cargoes, a provincial official said. Five cars derailed near Jansen, Saskatchewan, and two of them released 545 barrels of oil. That's the third spill for Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. since March and the largest of the three for the company since then, Bloomberg News reports. Hazardous Materials Director for Saskatchewan Ralph Bock told Bloomberg the rail company was building a temporary line around the accident site to ensure rail traffic can keep moving. Canadian Pacific said it expects oil-by-rail shipments to increase 31 percent to 70,000 carloads this year. Rail shipments of crude oil are increasing in general because regional oil production gains are outpacing existing pipeline capacity. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told The Council on Foreign Relations in New York last week that rail deliveries of crude oil are "far more environmentally challenging" than pipelines. Spills from rail are more common, but less severe, when compared with pipelines. A March pipeline spill in Arkansas released 5,000 barrels of crude oil.