Oil tankers are supposed to be one of the gigantic-sized types of water vehicles. They may be 350 mts high on average which is higher than Statue of Liberty and Eiffel tower. Without their mammoth size, today's petroleum-guzzling world would come to an abrupt halt!
Today's industrialized world is daily dependent on thousands of tons of crude oil, which in turn is converted into the petrol and petrochemicals sustaining our transport systems, businesses and homes. It's the enormous bulk oil tankers that carry this precious commodity around the world from well-head to processing plant. Today, the world's demand for oil is as insatiable as ever. There are more than 3700 tankers in operation and they include the world's largest ships. Oil tankers carry around 2,000,000,000 metric tons of oil each year, making them a very important subject in transportation geography. When compared to other methods of moving oil, oil tankers are considered the most efficient method aside from pipelines because of the amount of oil they can move at any given time. Due to their size, it costs an average of only two to four cents per gallon to move oil with an oil tanker.
Oil is moved onto an oil tanker in one of several ways .Oil is pumped into the tanks on the oil tanker. As the oil enters these tanks, it emits vapors that are either released into the atmosphere or captured and discharged back into the pump via vapor recovery lines. The loading of oil onto an oil tanker usually begins at low pressure to ensure there are no leaks or other equipment problems. Once the tanks are almost full, the pressure is increased until loading and "topping off" occurs. During the topping off phase, crew members monitor how much space is left in the tanks and begin to close all valves and complete the flow of oil onto the tanker.
Despite their efficiency in moving oil to destinations around the world, oil tankers are often criticized because of the possibility pollution, accidents and oil spills.