About 75 percent of Bakken oil production travels by rail and as much as 400,000 barrels a day heads to the East Coast, said Trisha Curtis, an analyst at the Energy Policy Research Foundation. Albany gets 20 to 25 percent of the Bakken’s rail exports, according to various analyst estimates.
“Albany has become a big hub,” Ms. Curtis said.
“Bakken crude has been a lifeline for the East Coast refineries,” said Lawrence Goldstein, an energy economist.