Friday 6 May 2016

Best Means Of Crude Oil Transportation

By Eric Phillips


Crude oil is a valuable commodity. Owing to the many uses of petroleum products, it is always on the move to and from refining industries. However, this product is very delicate and thus requires a very sensitive method of handling it. On how delicate it is a clear list of factors of consideration needs to be scrutinized before opting on crude oil transportation.

One of the factors of consideration is the safety of these methods. It is highly flammable and should be kept away from any fire sources. More so, putting out fires is always a hard task compared to how quick it spreads. Massive property distraction and loss of lives turn out to be a reality when such events come to pass.

A safe method of transportation should be reliable enough in delivering the mineral at the desired place on time and in the best of its state. Its means of transport has developed into one profitable enterprise as most people have turned it into a business. Therefore, if a method ends up being unreliable can cause losses to the company.

The cost and reliability of the process to be also used have turned out to be a paramount aspect of consideration. A good method to be used should be as affordable as possible. This method should be such that it can reach many geographical areas possible. This ensures that at no time will there be delays in delivery.

Upon a critical analysis, one may end up settling for several means of transport. Some are railway trucks, road trucks, use of pipeline, truck barges just to mention a few. These methods have their advantages and shortcomings depending on the context of its application.

Pipeline crude oil delivery is the commonest. It consists of well-laid pipes mostly underground having their starting points at the ports or oil wells and by the help of pumps they transport the oil to refining industries. Though the maintenance cost is low and fewer accidents are associated with it, pipelines are less flexible compared to trucks and oil seepages hard to note.

Oil trucks used in deliveries are always flexible as different places are linked with various roads. However, they mostly are the primary cause of traffic congestion in most highways and responsible for most accidents. In addition to this is that in the event of a fire outbreak the scope of property destruction is very high.

There was a need to ease the use of pipeline and trucks as the only methods of its transportation. This led to the development of the railway trucks that could also be used for its transportation. They have their railways running along the passenger and cargo rails. They are reliable as they face minimum disturbances along the rails though they are slow.

A unique waterway method used is the used of tank barges. Though they are not mostly used, they are cheap. They have the ability to transport this merchandise to and from its different destinations. Their initial used was to transport petrochemical products.




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