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Leading marine, aviation and land fuel specialist World Fuel Services Corporation (WFS) has confirmed that crude oil sold by one of its subsidiaries was being carried by railcars involved in the deadly train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec last weekend.

"The railcars involved in the incident were carrying crude oil sold by one of our subsidiary companies and destined for Irving Oil in Saint John, New Brunswick," Miami-headquartered WFS said in a statement.

The oil tanker train derailed in Lac-Mégantic on Saturday morning, exploding in a ball of flames and killing at least five people, with another 40 still missing and feared dead.

According to reports, the train had been parked in the village of Nantes, located approximately 7 kilometres from Lac-Mégantic, during an overnight driver shift change on Friday evening.

Sometime afterward, 73 cars carrying pressurised containers of crude oil became uncoupled from five locomotive engines, gathering speed as they rolled downhill before derailing in the town of Lac-Mégantic.

According to an official statement from train operator Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), the locomotive of the oil train parked at Nantes station was shut down subsequent to the departure of the engineer who had handled the train from Farnham, which may have resulted in the release of air brakes on the locomotive that was holding the train in place.

The subsequent derailment and explosion sent a fireball and black smoke into the air, forcing the evacuation of around 1,000 people, and dozens of buildings were destroyed.

According to Minnesota-based Dakota Plains Holdings, Inc. - a company involved in the transloading, marketing and transporting of crude oil and related products throughout the United States - affiliates of World Fuel Services have a partnership with Dakota Plains, who provide crude oil off take services including marketing, transloading of crude oil.

Ed Burkhardt, chairman of MMA, said in an interview on Monday with CTV that the cars involved in the accident had been leased by the supplier of the fuel.