Safety fears prompt call for US oil transport regulation A firefighter at the scene of the Lac-Mégantic rail crash last July The US oil industry is pushing for speedy regulation of the rapidly growing business of transporting crude oil by train, following a series of accidents that have raised public concerns over what is becoming an essential part of the country's energy infrastructure. The American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil companies" lobby group, has urged the administration to "get its act together" and implement new safety standards recommended by the industry to clarify the outlook for regulation. The recommendations include more stringent specifications for tank cars, better track maintenance to prevent derailments and improvements in brake systems. Companies are concerned that regulators will spend a year or more deliberating over rules and then come up with requirements that are different from the industry's latest recommendations, potentially forcing costly retrofits to brand new tank cars. The API said: "We could have a new standard tomorrow, and the oil industry stands ready to work on it." Rail transport of crude has been growing fast in the US as the shale boom has opened up new fields such as the Bakken of North Dakota that do not yet have sufficient pipeline connections to take all the additional production to refineries. About 800,000 barrels of oil per day were estimated to be moving by rail at the end of last year, roughly 10 per cent of US crude production. In 2008 it was just 20,000 b/d. Political pressure on the industry has been growing after a series of accidents involving oil train crashes and fires, including the disaster at Lac-Megantic in Quebec last July, in which 47 people were killed. An industry task force known as T87.6 made a series of recommendations for improving safety for trains carrying oil and other hazardous liquids back in March 2012, but the US Department of Transportation indicated last week that new regulations to enforce higher standards were unlikely to come until next year. The API's call for faster action followed a meeting last Thursday of rail and oil industry representatives with Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary, which ended without clear agreement on how to improve safety. There were also signs of disagreement between oil companies and rail operators. The T87.6 task force and other industry groups have recommended improvements to standard tank cars, including stronger shells and safety valves, and new cars are being built to the higher standards. However, about 75 per cent of the tank cars in use in the US are of the old design, although the wave of investment into new oil-by-rail capacity means that proportion is expected to fall to 40 per cent next year. The Association of American Railroads - which represents freight railways - said after Thursday's meeting with Mr Foxx that existing cars that fall short of the new standards should be scrapped or retrofitted to comply with the new standards. Retrofitting the US tank car fleet has been estimated to cost $1bn. In a submission to regulators in 2012, the API along with the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers, and the American Chemistry Council, said there was a need for "urgency" in deciding on regulations for new cars, but played down the idea of retrofitting existing cars. Turner, Mason, a firm of consulting engineers, has calculated that retrofitting the old cars to meet the new standards would add 20-40 cents per barrel to the cost of transporting crude by rail, which are typically $10-$15 per barrel to cross the country. More than the cost, the most significant constraint would probably be physical capacity to carry out the modifications. The API and other groups wrote in their 2012 submission: "All the shops available to do potential retrofit work are already at full capacity."