Nustar Energy and EOG Resources declared that they are collaborating on building a rail offloading facility at Nustar's crude oil terminal in St. James, Louisiana with a capacity of 70,000 barrels-per-day. The new facility will enable transportation and storage of crude produced from the Bakken in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas and other developing shale deposits in the United States.

Also part of the project are a new rail unit and two storage tanks which are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2012 and May 2012 respectively. The two tanks can store up to 360,000 barrels of crude combined. The facility can admit one train with a 70,000 barrel load and boasts of an infrastructure that can keep another train on wait.

Curt Anastasio, president and CEO of NuStar, said: "This project will give our customers much greater ability to move and store production from very significant crude discoveries throughout the U.S."

"Our St. James terminal is ideally situated in a major crude oil hub and has access to all modes of transportation to effectively get the crude to any number of markets. And given EOG's vast resources and leadership in our industry, they are the ideal partner for us in this effort," he added.

Mark G. Papa, chairman and chief executive officer, EOG Resources, Inc., commented: "We are pleased to be a partner in the new St. James unloading facility that will provide diverse market opportunities for our crude. Given the price differentials that exist within the marketplace today, we view this project as an important part of our crude-by-rail strategy."

Tags: Nustar Energy