How fast does oil travel in a pipeline

Feeder pipelines move the product from processing facilities and storage tanks to the long-distance haulers of the system: transmission pipelines. They can range from about the size of a bagel mm to the size of a large pizza mm. They can range from about the size of an empty paper towel roll mm to about the size of a large bale of hay 1, mm , with the majority being between mm and mm. Distribution pipelines are used by local distribution companies to deliver natural gas directly to homes and businesses.

They can range from smaller than the size of a dime It depends upon what your definition is for worse. Is it deaths and destruction? Is it amount of oil released? Is it land area or water volume contaminated? Is it habitat destroyed?

Is it CO2 emitted? Amid a North American energy boom and a lack of pipeline capacity, crude oil shipping on rail has been steadily increasing. The trains are getting bigger and towing more and more tanker cars. From to , trains were shorter and spills were rare and small, with about half of those years having no spills above a few gallons. Then came , in which more crude oil was spilled in U.

Crude is a nasty material, very destructive when it spills into the environment, and very toxic when it contacts humans or animals. Every crude oil has different properties, such as sulfur content sweet to sour or density light to heavy , and requires a specific chemical processing facility to handle it. Different crudes produce different amounts and types of products, sometimes leading to a glut in one or more of them, like too much natural gas liquids that drops their price dramatically, or not enough heating oil that raises their price.

Thus the reason for the Keystone Pipeline or increased rail transport - to get heavy tar sand crude to refineries in the American Midwest and along the Gulf Coast than can handle it. The last entirely new petroleum refinery in the United States opened in Since then, the number of refineries has steadily declined while refining capacity has concentrated in ever-larger facilities.

Most of the big refineries can handle heavy crude, but many smaller refineries can process only light to intermediate crude oil, most of which originates within the U. Thirty-three states have refineries, and most refineries can handle tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of barrels per day, but the largest capacity sits around the Gulf Coast and in California where the oil boom in America began.

However, in the s after production of sweet domestic crude had significantly declined from mid-century highs, the big companies like Exxon, Shell, CITCO and Valero spent billions upon billions of dollars to retool their refineries to handle foreign heavy crudes like Alberta tar sands. The number of refineries is decreasing, and their capacity is increasing, concentrating them in fewer places, so crude has to be moved longer distances. Each of the four ways to move it over long distances has its unique problems and none is without harm.

Oil pipelines are generally divided into two basic sections called trunks and gathering lines. Trunks range in size from 20 to 60 centimeters in diameter while gathering lines range from 5 to 15 centimeters in diameter. Even at these large diameters, it takes a substantial amount of force to propel oil through a pipeline. In general, oil is propelled through the use of centrifugal pumps. Pumps are located at the originating station of the line and then at 30 to kilometer intervals along the line.

The length of the pipeline, type oil being transported, capacity requirements, and topography of the land all determine the spacing of the pumps. Most pumps are driven by electric motors, but diesel engines or gas turbines may be used on oaccasion.