Shipping bitumen from the oilsands by rail may prove to be an alternative to building pipelines according to the executive director of the Oil Sands Developers Group.

Ken Chapman tells The Calgary Herald, rail is becoming “more and more of an attractive option” in light of opposition to the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL pipelines.

Standard & Poors recently pegged the cost of shipping a barrel of diluted bitumen at $6 to $8 compared to $7 via pipelines.  

It would take about a fifth of the time to ship bitumen by freight compared to through pipelines. It’s also estimated that adding to rail infrastructure would come at one-tenth of the cost compared to adding to existing pipeline systems.

But Chapman adds there are also negatives; the big one being you can’t ship as much by freight as you can by pipeline.