In light of the recent environmental problems plaguing the world, environmental tragedies like oil spills provide people with the shocking truth that man”s actions really have a great impact on the environment. Oil spills along bodies of water are capable of killing marine life as well as disrupting the marine ecosystems as well as the biological systems that are closely interrelated with the ocean. Tragedies like oil spills would have never occurred if people have given attention to oil field transportation. The question in people”s minds would be “where did it go wrong?”

To begin with, it is not a question of why people are transporting oil, but rather how they are transporting it. There is a need to transport oil since it is a very important commodity all over the world, and the safest way to transport it is through the sea (just imagine if it were carried by plane and the plane crashed). Crude oil, in order to be used must be transported from production sites to refineries. This is made possible by using different kinds of transportation modes. People are most familiar with sea transport of the oil. Crude oil is transported across great bodies of water using large tankers and barges.

Crude oil tankers usually stem from Crude oil transportation companies stationed in the countries of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The tankers, which are required to have double hulls, then transport the crude oil to different refineries all over the world. Another type of tanker called the Product tanker then transports the refined products to terminals for shipment to refined oil retailers and companies.

Crude oil transportation companies take pride in having a set of durable and ocean-worthy ship tankers. Most tankers may vary in size. There may be small ones and big ones, but the bigger ones are the ships that usually carry and transport crude oil. Larger ships are used solely for this purpose since they minimize the cost to ship crude oil barrels. Smaller ships are for other general purposes and are usually the ones tasked to transport the refined product to its designated terminal destinations.

For international travel, the largest of the big ships are used. The tanker size in this case, may be dependent on the type of business transaction involved. The tanker’s length, not to mention its loaded depth, plays a key role. The company also needs to consider how big the loading and unloading ports are.

Another type of oil field transportation is the pipeline. Pipelines are used when the oil needs to travel over land (or under land for that matter). Other land transportation alternatives include the use of trains and trucks.

Indeed, oil field transportation is one of those tricky business endeavors since Crude oil transportation companies have the heavy task of transporting the oil and at the same time making sure that none of that oil leaks out. Transporting oil is a very meticulous and sensitive job that it makes Contaminated soil transportation a walk in the park. But that”s another story.