The United States Department of Transportation has issued an amendment to the Emergency Prohibition Order originally issued February 25, 2014 regarding the transportation by rail of UN 1267 Petroleum Crude Oil. The intention of this amendment is to clarify the requirements outlined in the original EO and this amendment entirely supersedes the previously issued emergency order.
DOT has clarified the following requirements:
1. "Ensure that the material is properly tested (conducted with sufficient frequency and quality) and classed in accordance with the Amended EO and the HMR."
Please note that this is not a new requirement and has been in the regulations for many years. Also note that the emergency order does not specify what the testing frequency should be but they do stipulate that boiling point and flash point testing should have been done within the "recent past" in order to properly determine the packing group.
2. [paraphrased] "Shippers of Bulk quantities of petroleum crude oil for transportation commerce by rail in tank cars ….shall ensure that shipments by rail of UN 1267, petroleum crude oil, Class 3, PG Ill are transported according to the requirements for UN 1267, petroleum crude oil, Class 3, PG I or PG ll. PG Ill materials may continue to be described as PG III for the purposes of hazard communication."
This is somewhat different than the previous emergency order which seemed to require that producers classify crude oil as PG I or PG II for all transportation related functions, including on shipping papers. Now DOT is specifying that for the purposes of transportation PG III crude oil must be treated in the same manner that PG I or PG II crude oil (one can assume that this refers to package selection in particular). However shippers may still classify the material is PG III on shipping papers if in fact the crude oil is actually PG III.
3. The final provision warns shippers of material normally classified as UN 1267 Petroleum Crude Oil that is a violation of the emergency order to intentionally reclassify material with a different UN number or proper shipping name with the purpose of circumventing the emergency order.
This is merely a summary of a 19-page document so for the full details please refer to the EO itself: /a>
