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Petroleum transport is the transportation of petroleum and derivatives such as gasoline (petrol). Petroleum products are transported via rail cars, trucks, tanker vessels, and pipeline networks.

The Congressional Research Service estimates that transporting crude oil by pipeline is cheaper than rail, about $5/barrel versus $10 to $15/barrel. But rail is more flexible and has 140,000 miles of track in the United States compared to 57,000 miles of crude oil pipelines.

Tankers and Supertankers The oil is transported on purpose-built ships called tankers, which are classified by their deadweight tonnage (dwt). In 2013, the global fleet comprised about 11,000 tankers, for a total deadweight tonnage of 490 million. Between 2000 and 2013, overall capacity soared by 73%.

Rail Shipments of Crude Oil Originated carloads of crude oil on U.S. Class I railroads surged from 9,500 in 2008 to 493,146 in 2014. As new pipelines were built, they fell sharply over the next few years, but carloads rebounded somewhat in 2018 and 2019.

Thus, the 42 US-gallon oil barrel is a unit of measure, and is no longer a physical container used to transport crude oil, as most petroleum is moved in pipelines or oil tankers.

Pipeline and ocean vessels have historically been the most common forms of carrying crude oil to refineries. Rail and truck movements, however, have gained traction in the past decade due to lacking pipeline infrastructure and operational constraints in certain geographies.

One rail car carries enough crude oil to make about 13,500 gallons of gasoline. In 2022, the average carload of crude oil originated in the United States carried around 650 barrels of oil.