Oil Tankers

The oil tanker was developed in the late 19th century as a solution for transporting large quantities of 'black gold ' across the globe. Today, oil tankers fall into two basic categories, crude tankers and product tankers.

Crude tankers are the larger of the two. They move raw, unrefined oil from the places where it's pumped out of the earth, to the refineries where it is processed into fuel and other products. Product tankers, on the other hand, are smaller than crude tankers and move already-processed petroleum products to markets where they can be sold and used. Corporations are always seeking the most efficient way to accomplish a task in order to maximize profits. Due to their immense size, oil tankers provide an easy and inexpensive way to transport oil over long distances.

In fact, it only costs around two to four cents per gallon to transport oil using a typical tanker. Like many other influential technologies, oil tankers have helped us progress as a civilization, but they have also presented us with considerable problems. Without oil tankers, it would be impossible to travel as easily and often as we do. However, some of the worst man-made environmental disasters in history have resulted from oil tanker accidents. When oil spills into the sea it creates enormous damage to nature, which takes many years to recover. In order to prevent these accidents occurring again in the future new regulations have been introduced. For example, new oil tankers must be double-hulled, which means that there are two layers separating the oil they carry from the sea. This reduces the risk of oil spills in case the tanker has an accident, but of course it does not eliminate risk completely. Sea transportation of oil also carries other risks, including pirates, who take control of the tanker and demand money in return. The future of oil tankers is also uncertain, just as the future of the oil industry itself is. Man is looking for new ways of producing energy as oil reserves are finishing and ecological issues are becoming more important.