UNIVERSITY OF KARBALA

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

PETROLEUM ENG. DEP

Application of Transportation in
petroleum engineering

A Report

Submitted to petroleum engineering department of university of karbala

By:--

Ali Mahmoud Ayal

Supervisor:

Dr Sabah Rasoul Al-Jabiri

Date

26/6/2020

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Introduction

Getting oil to market is a process that requires various transportation and storage technologies,
usually referred to as “midstream”. Oil is often produced in remote locations away from where
it will be consumed; therefore, transportation networks have been built to transport the crude oil
to refineries where it is processed and to ship the refined products to where they will be
consumed (like a gas station). Storage facilities are used to balance supply and demand of oil
. and refined products

The transportation of oil is the final step that oil takes before it is distributed to consumers. The
transportation of oil is a part of midstream industry. After oil has been extracted from the
ground, it requires transportation and distribution to refineries and upgraders that convert the oil
into usable components. After refining and upgrading, the usable petroleum products are then
transported again to distribution locations worldwide.[2] Thus, oil is transported both in its initial
.crude form and as a final product

The transportation and storage industry is a very complex system that is composed of many
independent owners. For example, the tanker transportation industry is a very fragmented
industry with 75 percent of the world tanker fleet being independently owned.3 In the natural
gas transport and storage network, nearly all is transported through interstate pipelines owned
.by at least 70 to 80 companies to over several hundred underground storage facilities

Figure 1. Pipelines are one of the ways that oil is transported after being refined.[1]

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Theory

There are several different methods of transportation, all of which are becoming increasingly
important. Advances in exploration and extraction techniques (like offshore drilling), means
that oil is being located and recovered from increasingly remote locations across the globe. This
coupled with an increasing demand for petroleum products has resulted in oil extraction and
refining and being very far from where people are using gasoline, diesel and kerosene.[2] This
.separation of supply and demand makes transportation vital in the petroleum industry

Types of Transportation

There are a number of different ways that oil can be transported worldwide in large quantities,
and each type of transportation has its own benefits and drawbacks. Several different methods
.of oil transportation are highlighted below

Oil Tankers
Crude oil tankers are large ships used to transport crude oil from the Middle East, Africa, and
Latin America to refineries worldwide. Tankers that carry refined products are known as
product tankers, and carry refined petroleum products from refineries to distribution locations.[3]

Oil tankers can very in size, although smaller vessels are generally used to transport refined
petroleum products whereas much larger tankers are used to transport crude oil. These larger
ships tend to be used more for crude oil as they reduce the cost per barrel of transport of the oil.
Tanker sizes are expressed in terms of cargo tonnes - or how much cargo they can carry.
[3]
 Larger crude oil tankers carry significantly more and are generally utilized in the international
.crude oil trade

Tankers are primarily the major haulers of oil that is imported into the United States. The U.S.
Coast Guard defines a tank vessel as one that is constructed or adapted to carry oil or hazardous
material in bulk as cargo or cargo residue. The earliest construction of tank vessels used single
hulls.There are various types of tankers: oil tanker, parcel tanker (chemical vessels),
combination carrier (designed to carry oil or solid cargoes in bulk), and barges. In addition,
there are international bulk chemical codes governing the safe transport of chemical cargoes
providing various levels of protection against the uncontrolled release of substances that pose
the greatest environmental risk.Tank vessels are classified by the trade in which they routinely
operate over a period of time. The three most common categories are crude oil carriers, product
carriers: which can carry clean (e.g., gasoline, jet fuel) and dirty (e.g. black oils): and parcel
carriers (chemicals). Tankers tend to remain in one trade but market conditions can dictate a

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.change, even though the process to change a vessel's trade involves extensive work

Figure 2. A commercial oil tanker.[4] It is important to note that oil tankers are very large, with
small ones being around 200 meters in length and large ones up to over four 400 meters in
.length

Pipelines

Pipelines play a very critical role in the transportation process because most of the oil moves
through pipelines for at least part of the route. After the crude oil is separated from natural gas,
pipelines transport the oil to another carrier or directly to a refinery. Petroleum products then
travel from the refinery to market by tanker, truck, railroad tank car, or pipeline. Pipelines can
range up to 36 inches (92cm) in diameter and even larger, with some of the largest pipelines
carrying more than one million barrels of oil daily. Pipelines cross all kinds of territories and in
all parts of the world. They are connected using an electric arc-welding process developed
about 1928. They are built to withstand large amounts of pressure of 1,000 pounds per square
inch and heavy duty machines are responsible for fitting them within the contours necessary for
their laying in all types of terrain. Strategic planning involves determining the shortest and most
economical routes where they are built, the number of pumping stations and natural gas

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 compression stations along the line, and terminal storage facilities so that oil from almost any
.field can be shipped to any refinery on demand

Rail Transport

Oil can also be transported on long cargo trains equipped with special tanker cars, and rail
transport is used most commonly in areas without pipelines. In contrast to oil tankers, which
can hold a significant amount of crude oil in a small number of holding tanks, rail cars can only
transport the required large quantities of oil in multiple cars.[6] After extraction, oil is loaded
onto these railcars and moved across pre-existing tracks to the refinery. Although more cars are
required to transport significant amounts of oil, rail is a fairly cost effective method of moving
oil. Similar to pipelines and oil tankers, rail can also be used to transport refined petroleum
.products to distribution locations

.Figure 3. A tank car that is transported by rail

Trucks

Tanker trucks are also a type of oil transportation method, however they are functionally the
same as rail transportation in that several large trucks with equipped oil storage tanks are
needed to move significant quantities of oil. Generally, trucks are used to carry small capacities
of oil short distances and rarely carry crude oil. Instead, trucks are more commonly used to
move refined petroleum such as gasoline to distribution locations such as gas stations. Instead
of relying on established railways, however, trucks can operate more freely as they only require
roadways to travel.[6]

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.Figure 4. An oil tanker truck

Barges

Barges are another method of bulk liquid transportation. Barges, which can carry on average
about 15,000 barrels of oil, are primarily used on rivers and canals. The domestic tank barge
industry is composed of approximately 4,000 barges and they account for the transport of
millions of tons of cargo annually. Within the U.S., they operate via rivers, lakes, bays and
.sounds and they run offshore in the coast wise trade

Internationally, barges are involved in various activities in other parts of the world. For
example, two barges were designed for grounding and floating operations in the Caspian Sea. In
addition, the barges Nur and Shapagat were built to accommodate 120 personal in a total living
space that incorporates galley, mess, temporary refuge and muster stations, and are self-
supporting being outfitted with anchoring, mooring, towing and bottom jetting systems. Having
been certified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and London's Lloyd's Register,
.they are designed for the harsh offshore environments common off Kazakhstan

Summery

While there are various transportation options for oil, the decision of which method to use
usually comes down to cost and location.  Short distance transportation is usually done by
feeder or distribution pipelines and, in some cases, trucks.  When land routes are unavailable,

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tankers are the only option for delivering oil to market. Short distance transport can be
achieved using railway, trucks, or pipelines. Trucks are less efficient than other methods, but
their particular advantage is that they provide direct travel from the source to the destination. 
Direct transportation is also a benefit of pipelines and tankers. In contrast, railway cars must be
detached and processed at stations. Moreover, they may require jumping through multiple
.routes, making the process more complex from an administrative standpoint[1]

In the near future, it can be expected that these transportation methods will continue to be used,
unless a radically new method of transportation is found. Therefore, most of the technology
development in oil transportation methods is aimed at reducing emissions, increasing
.efficiency, or preventing spills and leaks

An important issue that oil transportation and storage methods face are spills and inadvertent
emissions. Spills from tankers can pollute coastal environments, while spills from rail and
pipelines can pollute wildlife habitats or populated areas depending on the location. Spills or
.gas leaks from storage tanks have the same harmful effects

References
Wikimedia Commons. (November 8, 2015). British Steel Pipeline [Online]. -1
Available: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/British_Steel
_pipeline,_Caldicot_Level_-_geograph.org.uk_-_689097.jpg

American Petroleum Institute. (November 29, 2015). Transporting Oil and Natural -2

 :Gas [Online]. Available

Wikimedia Commons. (December 30, 2015). DOT-111 Tank Car [Online].  -3

Available: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/FRA_NATX22746_DO
.T-111_tank_car.png

US EPA. (November 29, 2015). Transportation and Marketing of Petroleum  -4

Liquids' [Online].
Available: http://www3.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch05/final/c05s02.pd.f

:Wikimedia Commons. (December 30, 2015). Shell Tanker Truck [Online]. Available  -5