Not two years ago, the 140-year-old South Philadelphia Sunoco refinery nearly closed its doors for good, which would have resulted in the loss of 850 jobs. Instead, the refinery, renamed Philadelphia Energy Solutions, now processes approximately 330,000 barrels of oil per day and employs more than 1,000 people. Most of that oil is Bakken crude oil from North Dakota, which comes daily by as many as three one-mile-long freight trains. Together with facilities like Eddystone Rail Company (currently at about 80,000 barrels per day of capacity, and growing), the Philadelphia region once again finds itself as a vital U.S. shipping and refining destination.
Bakken crude oil is classified as a light, sweet oil and derives its name from the approximately 200,000-square-mile shale rock formation in which it is found. The formation has essentially three layers—a sandstone layer between two layers of shale. While crude oil may be found throughout the entire formation, it was the combined use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking into that middle layer that made drilling in the Bakken so successful.
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