Pipelines, Ships, Barges, Trains and Trucks .

Pipelines are not the only way to move petroleum. So how do they stack up against the other ways – tank ships and barges, trucks and railroad tank cars?

Pipelines move more than two-thirds of all the crude oil and refined products in the United States.

Most gallons of gasoline move by both pipeline and truck. After a gallon of gasoline is refined from crude oil, it goes into a pipeline along with millions of other gallons and is moved the long distance from a refinery, say one in Texas, to a distribution terminal in a major city, like Memphis, Tennessee. So first the gallon moves 600 miles by pipeline, then a truck picks up that gallon along with about 8,000 more and moves it the last 20-30 miles to a local gas station.

Another example, is home heating oil, which again is produced at a refinery in Texas and moves over 1,000 miles to Linden, New Jersey. There it is loaded onto a barge and taken to Portland, Maine to a distribution terminal where that gallon makes its final trip of 10-30 miles by truck to a homeowner’s fuel oil tank.

These are examples of the integrated nature of the petroleum distribution network in the U.S. Looking at all methods of transportation and the relative distances each takes to transport a single gallon, pipelines move the vast majority – two-thirds – of petroleum.

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Click here to learn more and view the complete report, The US Oil Pipelines Industry's Safety Performance, Allegro Engergy Group, February 2003

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