Why Are Pipelines Important to You?

Pipelines are the energy lifelines of almost every activity of everyday life. Do you enjoy taking a vacation? You drive to the airport in your car. The gasoline was delivered by pipeline. You fly in an airplane that is powered by jet fuel. Jet fuel travels by pipeline to every major airport. You buy family necessities at the local grocery store, which is stocked by trucks powered by diesel fuel. You turn on the lamps at home that use electricity, which is generated by burning natural gas or diesel fuel. The list could go on and on but you get the point!

A pipeline near you might take products to the community next door, to a city across the state or a city in a state far from you. Most communities do not have refineries nearby to supply product. They depend on pipelines that come from somewhere else. Products move from the refinery to a consuming region then on to the consumer. For example, pipeline shipments from the Gulf Coast provide 40% of the East Coast’s supply of refined products and about 20% of the Midwest’s demand.

Pipelines as large as 48 inches in diameter stretch from Houston to New Jersey, from Houston to St. Louis or Chicago or from Alberta, Canada to Wisconsin. Some petroleum markets are not as distant from the point of supply such as pipelines starting from ports, such as San Diego or San Francisco, that serve inland areas in California and the southwestern U.S. Each region of the country has some unique aspects. Very few pipelines actually cross the highest parts of the Rocky Mountains since the distances are long and the population centers small. But smaller refineries and regional pipelines serve these areas as well.

For more information on refined product pipelines visit Overview - Refined Products Pipelines.

Crude oil pipelines are the foundation of our energy supply. Crude oil is collected by pipelines from inland producing areas, like western Texas, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alaska and Canada. Crude oil is also moved by pipeline from ships in the Gulf of Mexico and from offshore oil drilling platforms in coastal and far offshore areas.

Crude also arrives in the US from Venezuela, Mexico, and the Middle East, often moving for the final leg of that trip from a US port to a refinery by pipeline.

Over 75% of Canada’s production of crude oil, for instance, travels by pipeline to serve over 60% of the refinery demand in the Great Lakes region. All of this crude oil gets to that market by pipeline.

There are many places on the internet where you can learn more about the petroleum industry and crude oil, such as the American Petroleum Institute at www.api.org.

For more information on crude oil pipelines visit Overview - Crude Oil Pipelines.