Overview of the design, construction, and operation of interstate liquid petroleum pipelines.
The U.S. liquid petroleum pipeline industry is large, diverse, and vital to the nation's economy. Comprised of approximately 200,000 miles of pipe in all fifty states, liquid petroleum pipelines carried more than 40 million barrels per day, or 4 trillion barrel-miles, of crude oil and refined p...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2018
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/925387 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/925387 https://doi.org/10.2172/925387 |
| Summary: | The U.S. liquid petroleum pipeline industry is large, diverse, and vital to the nation's economy. Comprised of approximately 200,000 miles of pipe in all fifty states, liquid petroleum pipelines carried more than 40 million barrels per day, or 4 trillion barrel-miles, of crude oil and refined products during 2001. That represents about 17% of all freight transported in the United States, yet the cost of doing so amounted to only 2% of the nation's freight bill. Approximately 66% of domestic petroleum transport (by ton-mile) occurs by pipeline, with marine movements accounting for 28% and rail and truck transport making up the balance. In 2004, the movement of crude petroleum by domestic federally regulated pipelines amounted to 599.6 billion tonmiles, while that of petroleum products amounted to 315.9 billion ton-miles (AOPL 2006). As an illustration of the low cost of pipeline transportation, the cost to move a barrel of gasoline from Houston, Texas, to New York Harbor is only 3 cents per gallon, which is a small fraction of the cost of gasoline to consumers. Pipelines may be small or large, up to 48 inches in diameter. Nearly all of the mainline pipe is buried, but other pipeline components such as pump stations are above ground. Some lines are as short as a mile, while others may extend 1,000 miles or more. Some are very simple, connecting a single source to a single destination, while others are very complex, having many sources, destinations, and interconnections. Many pipelines cross one or more state boundaries (interstate), while some are located within a single state (intrastate), and still others operate on the Outer Continental Shelf and may or may not extend into one or more states. U.S. pipelines are located in coastal plains, deserts, Arctic tundra, mountains, and more than a mile beneath the water's surface of the Gulf of Mexico (Rabinow 2004; AOPL 2006). The network of crude oil pipelines in the United States is extensive. There are approximately 55,000 miles of crude oil trunk lines (usually 8 ... |
|---|