The Black Thunder Terminal is a joint venture between Meritage Midstream and Arch Coal.

Served by both the Union Pacific and BNSF railways, the terminal is located at the Black Thunder mining complex in Campbell County, Wyoming in the heart of the Powder River Basin’s drilling activity.

The 99 car train was carrying 70,000 barrels of crude oil to a refinery on the US east coast for the terminal’s anchor shipper Black Thunder Marketing.

All of the train’s cars were new and met the safety standards adopted earlier this year by the American Association of Railroads.

The Black Thunder Terminal provides outbound rail-to-market optionality for crude oil production from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

Phase I truck-to-train transload service has been fully operational at Black Thunder since the beginning of March.

The transload capacity is 10,000 barrels per day and landing and loading space is available.

Construction of Phase II high speed loading facilities is expected to begin later this year.

The Phase II facility will include up to four 100,000 barrel storage tanks and a 10-car rack system capable of loading 15 to 18 cars an hour.

Target total loading time is 15 hours.

The high speed loading service is expected to be available in 2015.

The terminal’s location at the Black Thunder mining complex provides ample room for expansion to meet customer needs.

Meritage Midstream CEO Steven Huckaby said the beginning of operations as one of the first dual-served, multishipper unit train facilities in Wyoming was an enormous achievement.

“The Black Thunder Terminal is a unique and important strategic asset for oil producers in the Power River Basin,” he said.

“The Black Thunder facility is unique because it’s the only crude oil terminal in Wyoming located at a coal mine.

“When we formed the joint venture with Arch Coal, our vision was to create a win-win situation for our customers and the terminal partners.

“We created significant cost savings for our customers as well as efficiencies at Black Thunder by successfully repurposing some of the mine property and rail infrastructure for transloading crude oil.

“It’s a great location in the centre of drilling and production activity and a perfect fit for everyone at the table.”

Arch Coal executive vice-president and chief operating officer Paul Lang said partnering with Meritage at Black Thunder unlocked “additional value for our existing land holdings and infrastructure”

He said it also gave Arch “a diversified interest in the growing shale oil market”

Meritage holds a 60% interest in the Black Thunder Terminal and Arch holds the remaining 40%.