End of a Titan

The transportation of crude oil is a very sticky topic. A company may have a rig in Uganda but the crude oil needs to be transported to a refinery in Kenya. The refined product is then distributed to customers globally. The problem arises when the distribution chain becomes interrupted and I do not mean by social economic factors but rather spillages of pre and post refined crude oil. The economic impact can be great and companies will certainly lose money, but the environmental impact is far greater financially, environmentally and socially for the producer, distributer, ecologies and communities.  

The reason I say this is due to the substances involved. If you have been following my articles then you will know that petroleum is formed over millions of years and is a combination of various hydrocarbons which are broken down during the refining process. These compounds include sulphur, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen all of which form naturally. The problem is that crude oil is very toxic to most organisms and highly combustible. Have you seen an oil rig fire on TV? They burn extremely fiercely and can take days, even weeks to fully extinguish. The petroleum lifecycle is one of pollution, from excavation of the unrefined material, refining and its waste products to consumption and burning of oil within combustion engines. However much has been done to try and reduce soil erosion, disruption toward communities and eco systems. Even cars and oil burning generators are becoming more efficient reducing carbon waste products.

I see one of the main problems surrounding the oil industry is the transportation of crude oil, simply because if there is an oil spillage then the destruction can be devastating. A tanker can carry nearly 30 million gallons of oil and can be 460 metres long compared to a standard aircraft carrier of 340 metres. These tankers are so huge and hold such a vast amount of oil, that when they are breached the oil slick can cause immense damage to the local ecosystem. Such a system is finely balanced and each organism is a food source for another. If any of these creatures are killed by an oil spill then it affects others higher up the food chain. For example single cell organisms called plankton may not seem relevant to you and me, but for a whale it is their food source and if the environmentalists are not crying over billions of dead plankton then they certainly will for even a single dead whale!

There are a number of factors to determine the effects of an oil spill, including the type of oil and the quantities involved. But all spills impact the ecosystem in the same way, firstly physical effects upon wildlife caused by the oil coating or smothering organisms and wildlife. Most of us have seen pictures of seabirds choking on oil drench beaches almost unrecognisable to the beautiful birds seen soaring through the sky and the toxic effects from crude oil as it is absorbed into the cells should not be underestimated. Also when a certain type of organism is destroyed or reduced it is usually replaced by another that is not fitting with the already established ecosystem. For example in the UK the red squirrel was a much loved sight but has become a rare sight these days since the release of the more aggressive American grey squirrel which has increased in numbers as the red diminishes.

Other indirect effects are the changes to the local environment and habitat. If these changes become too great, the ecosystem stops supporting the immediate ecology, thus killing not only the environmental habitat but the species of animals that need it to survive. The problem is that once a habitat is destroyed it may take decays to return if ever. Therefore if the dangers of oil spillages are so great then maybe we should look at the oil tankers and if there are alternatives that would better protect our precious environment.

So what are the alternatives and can we make the current tankers safer? Modern tankers are double and even triple hulled, but a number of private companies are still using single hulled tankers and as you can imagine they are much easier to rupture and a lot cheaper to buy. But with so many oil spills happening over the last decade we cannot afford to cut costs as the environmental damage is far greater. To be honest I see the oil tankers of old out dated as a means of distribution. The investment for deep sea pipes are very high but once in place take little maintenance, can be monitored electronically and greatly reduces the possibility of oil contamination. They are relatively clean and efficient compared to a diesel powered tanker. There could still be breaches to the pipeline but this should not be on the same scale as a tanker spillage and the flow controls of modern oil pipelines allow the values to be remotely closed at pipe intersections reducing the quantity of the spillage.

Ultimately the answer is to remove the risks of sea based transportation and produce oil as locally as possible to the consumer demand. The problem with this approach is that consumer demand maybe unsustainable for the levels of available production for a particular region. For African and Asian markets this levels of oil production could support the infrastructure and petroleum needs of their respective continents. The only way to keep petroleum supply close to demand is to maintain equilibrium between the two and for Western countries especially America, may mean controlling consumer demand by restricting the flow of oil and using alternative energy supplies. This has already started with States like California heavily promoting LPG as an alternative to petrol, not because it reduces the use of tankers but because certain American States suffer from smog which is a mixture of smoke and fog. This was extremely dangerous in Victorian England during the industrial revolution but the motor car is now seen as the modern day culprit. Therefore let’s seriously assess how we use oil, where it is produced and how it is delivered? Let this generation make a positive change that will allow the next generation to live in a cleaner, healthier and safer world.