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

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 thatoil is being located and recovered from increasingly remote
locations across the globe. Thiscoupled with an increasing demand for petroleum
products has resulted in oil extraction andrefining 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
3
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 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.

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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 compression
field stations along the line, and terminal storage facilities so that oil from almost any
.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

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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]

.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

6
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, 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

 -1
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/British_Steel_pipe
.line

  .”American Petroleum Institute,” Transporting Oil and Natural Gas -2

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Wikimedia Commons. (December 30, 2015). DOT-111 Tank Car [Online].  -3
Available: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/FRA_NATX227
.46_DOT-111_tank_car.png

US EPA,” Transportation and Marketing of Petroleum Liquids' or  -4

.“ Wikimedia Commons, 2015, “Shell Tanker Truck   -5