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The trend continues as #Canadian crude-by-rail #exports rises to another record number of 204,558 barrels per day (b/d) in June. This marks the first time #crudeoil rail #export shipments have surpassed the 200,000 b/d mark. https://t.co/yrXl7FJKDU pic.twitter.com/Wwew1HJ8nq — NEB Canada (@NEBCanada) August 22, 2018

In June 2017, by contrast, oil-by-rail shipments were 109,506 barrels per day. The year before that, June exports were only 43,205 barrels per day.

The milestone is the culmination of a steady years-long amping up in the number of Canadian oil trains entering the United States.

From January to June, Canadian trains delivered twice as much oil to American refineries (36,100,164 barrels) as in the whole of 2012 (16,963,524 barrels).

Even when compared to the first six months of 2017, oil exports by rail are already 31.4 per cent higher in 2018.

This historic spike in oil trains is largely driven by the fact that virtually every gallon of Canadian pipeline capacity is already spoken for.

Enbridge is the primary operator of oil pipelines running into the United States from Canada. In December, company representative Guy Jarvis said their Canadian network would be “chock full” well into 2021.

In June, the National Energy Board reported that for three years “major crude oil export pipelines have been operating at, or near, capacity.”

At the same time, Alberta oil is selling at a particularly steep discount as compared to U.S. oil blends. Western Canadian Select, the trade name for a blended oil that includes most oil sands petroleum, is currently selling at about US$37 per barrel. Compare that to a popular U.S. oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which is nearly double the price at US$70 per barrel.

WCS is a lower quality blend, which means it always sells a bit cheaper than WTI. However, the discount is made all the bigger by the fact that Alberta oil can’t easily be moved out of the province.