The first train with Bakken crude oil shipments recently embarked from the newly completed Bakken Oil Express terminal near Dickinson, North Dakota, Lario Logistics said.

The BNSF railway train, equipped with 103 oil tank cars, left for St. James, Louisiana, with 70,000 barrels of crude aboard, said the company, which owns the terminal.

The anchor shipper was Eighty-Eight Oil.

The rail hub currently has a take-away capacity of 100,000 bpd and is the first mutli-shipper facility in the Midwest state, Lario Logistics said.

Construction of the rail terminal began in fourth quarter 2010 and the company has plans to expand capacity to 250,000 bpd.

The BNSF southern line, owned by Warren Buffett, passes through 16 of the top 19 oil producing counties in central and western North Dakota. The company raised transport rates for shipments to St. James, Louisiana, by 10 percent in early October.

Increased output from the North Dakota plains, which reached a record high above 464,000 bpd in September because of the state's Bakken shale prospect, has aggravated a crude glut in the U.S. Midwest.

As shippers scramble to bring new take-away capacity to carry this crude away from the Midwest and to the refinery hub in the Gulf of Mexico, rail projects have emerged as the most viable solutions while pipelines get approved. (Reuters)