OIL AND GAS TRANSPORTATION

Oil and gas transportation is the transport of oil and derivatives such as gasoline. Advances in exploration and production have helped to locate and recover a supply of oil and natural gas from major reserves around the world. Oil is transported by rail cars, trucks, tankers and pipelines. The method used to move this oil depends on the amount moved and where it is moved. The biggest problems with moving this oil are pollution and the possibility that oil can spread. Petroleum oil is very difficult to clean and is very toxic to live animals. The movement of oil to the market is a process that requires a variety of transport and storage technologies, usually referred to as "midsream". Oil is often produced in places far from where it will be consumed; as a result, transportation systems have been built to transport crude oil to refineries where it is processed and to ship refined products to where they will be consumed (such as a service station). Storage facilities are used to balance the supply and demand of oil and refined products

Methods of  transportation

The marine vessel

The marine oil tanker and the barges can transport this oil around the world. These ships are used because they can carry a lot of fuel, so the amount it costs per barrel to move that oil is very cheap. These tankers are also the only way to transport crude oil across the oceans. Usually, the big tankers are used to transport this fuel on a global scale, transporting fuel from one continent to another. Barges are very similar to tankers, but barges are much smaller and have no propulsion method to move them. Barges are often pushed or towed by tugs. This makes the barges very poor for transporting this oil over long distances. Barges are very poor for traveling through rough seas, so they are used in quieter waters. However, these barges are generally used to transport fuel over short distances.

Trucks

Tank trucks are widely used as rail cars, but they usually transport refined fuel to a service station, such as a gas station. Trucks are generally used to haul smaller oil capacities over short distances. Like rail cars, these trucks can carry many types of oil, but they do not really transport oil in the form of crude oil, because it would take a lot of trucks to deliver the volume of crude oil required by refineries. These trucks can deliver this fuel to gas stations, or deliver the fuel directly to the consumer. These trucks are used in situations where it would be illogical to use rail cars, pipelines and tankers. Places like gas stations; ships that can not access it, and do not require the volume provided by pipelines or trains, would get their fuel from the tankers. This allows a rational and cost-effective way to deliver fuel to consumers through the service station. Current sizes range from 400 to 7,500 US gallons.

Rail car

Rail cars are another way of transporting crude oil through a land mass. The oil is loaded into the tank cars and transported by a diesel train across the rails to the refinery or intended destination of the train. Trains can carry a massive amount of this oil using multiple tank cars. Although each car carries a lot less oil than a large tanker, when many are used, a lot of oil can be transported. For example, tank car DOT-111 is a very common tank car that can hold 34,500 US gallons (820 barrels and 131 m3). If ten tank cars were pulled, the train would carry 345,000 US gallons (8,200 bbls, 1,310 m3) of oil, so the amount of volume would increase rapidly. The locomotive used to pull these cars has tremendous power and can be connected to other locomotives to increase power, making the car a fairly cost-effective way to transport that oil. These cars, like pipelines, can be used to transport refined fuel instead of crude oil from a refinery to a distribution plant. Wagons are a common way of moving this fuel over long distances to areas where there are no installed pipelines.

Pipelines

Pipelines are used to transport oil from wells to refineries and storage facilities. Pipelines are considered the most cost-effective way to transport oil on land. First, the oil is collected at the wellhead or in an area where the oil is stored. From the wellhead, it is pumped through the earth through a pipe, and is unloaded at its destination which is usually a refinery. However, pipelines can be used in the same way to transport already refined fuels such as gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel from the refinery to distribution facilities or to a consumer. These pipelines are not just a straight line of straight pipe, but have various components on the pipeline. These pipelines will have booster pumps to maintain fuel along a long distance, inspection areas to ensure that fuel does not receive contaminants, and even other collection and delivery points along the way. Although it costs a lot of money and time to set up these pipelines, the cost of operation is much lower than any other type of transportation. In addition, the amount of labor required to move this oil is not so great. Pipelines provide the most efficient way to transport this oil through a land mass. Even though these tips are extremely profitable, there are certain circumstances where this is not true and it makes more sense to use another method. For example, it is cheaper and more logical to use a vessel to transport oil in the Atlantic than a pipeline