Shell halts proposed oil-by-rail project at its Anacortes refinery

ANACORTES, Wash. – Shell Puget Sound Refinery has terminated plans for a proposed oil-by-rail project at its refinery near Anacortes.

Under the plan, trains would have brought crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to replace some of the supply Shell currently gets from Alaska’s North Slope.

Refinery general manager Shirley Yap told the Skagit Valley Herald on Thursday that recent low oil prices and abundant production elsewhere have slowed Midwest production, making it less of a good investment.

State and local officials had been in the midst of a full environmental review of the project. Yap said she was confident the facility could have been built following their guidelines.

Kristen Boyles, an attorney at Earthjustice who represented conservation groups in their legal challenge of the project, called the decision an extraordinary victory for the people of Skagit County and Washington state.