The American Petroleum Institute has published new recommended practices for testing and classifying crude oil for loading into rail tank cars and rail shipment. API’s Recommended Practice for Classifying and Loading of Crude Oil into Rail Tank Cars, also known as RP 3000, will provide guidance in many areas of preparing to ship crude oil by rail. Some of those areas include procedures for initial and ongoing sampling and testing of crude oil for transport classification, criteria for determining the frequency of crude oil sampling and testing, how to assign the correct packing group and establishing a crude oil sampling and testing program.
The President and CEO of API stated “This particular standard is one element of a much broader approach to safety improvement. A comprehensive effort that addresses accident prevention, mitigation and response is essential to achieving our goal of zero incidents for crude by rail shipment.”
At this time API is making the document available to all interested parties at no charge. To view the complete document please visit www.api.org/rail
