Canada is in fifth place in terms of the amount of oil produced annually. The reserve of this mineral is estimated by experts at 28 billion tons. The share of the oil export market is 4.54%. Recently, Canadians have started exporting oil to neighboring countries, mainly to the United States. Approximately 90% of Canadian oil is sold to the United States.
China extracts about 4 million barrels of oil every day. The share of Chinese black gold in the world market is 5.71%. The People's Republic of China, being the largest country in terms of population, also leads in terms of consumption of this resource. However, China's own oil reserves are not enough; according to experts, about 2.5 billion tons are left in the depths. Therefore, China buys some of its oil from neighboring Russia.
The United States opens the top three world leaders in oil production. Every day, 9 million barrels of this product are produced here, which is 11.8% of the production worldwide. It is noteworthy that the United States is not only the largest exporter, but also one of the leaders in the import of this mineral. America holds the largest contingency reserves of oil.
Saudi Arabia produces 10 million barrels of oil every day. The entire economy of this country rests precisely on the export of this mineral. Saudi Arabia sells oil to the countries of East Asia and the USA. This country receives about 90% of all profits from the sale of oil. The share of supplied oil on the world market is 13.23%. 36.7 billion tons of the product remained in the subsoil.
The leading country in terms of daily oil production and reserves is Russia. More than 10 million barrels of black gold are mined here every day. 13.92% is the share of produced Russian oil on the world market.
Oil grades and places of their production
Black gold can vary in quality, composition, and the presence of various additives. Therefore, dividing oil into several types is a prerequisite for trading this mineral.
The most popular oil brand is called Brent. Its price is fundamental for 70% of all volumes of oil produced. This oil has been produced since 1976 in the Norwegian Sea. This brand got its name, Brent, by the name of all five layers with deposits of this mineral. This brand is in high demand primarily due to its low sulfur content.
In the United States, the most common brand of oil is WTI. It practically does not differ in its properties and quality from Brent, only the sulfur content is 0.5%. Most of this oil is used to make gasoline. That is why this brand is in high demand in the US and PRC markets.
On the territory of Russia, oil is produced, which is called Urals. It is mined in Siberia, the Far East and in the northern parts of the Russian Federation. These regions are rich in high quality oil. Most of the black gold is exported abroad via Transneft pipes. Also, this brand of oil has a small subspecies called Siberian Light. In this product, the sulfur content does not exceed 0.57%. It should be noted that all three brands of oil produced in Russia are directly related to Brent prices.
Arab Light oil is also in demand on the world market. The cost of this product depends on the WTI brand quotes. The production company Saudi Aramco provides good discounts on oil to countries in Asia and Europe.
The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how a person with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. While BP is urgently looking for money to restore the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the US authorities are deciding what to do with offshore drilling, we suggest recalling the 10 largest black gold spills on water in human history.
1.In 1978 the tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany (France). Due to the stormy weather, the rescue operation was impossible. At that time, this accident was the largest environmental disaster in the history of Europe. It is estimated that 20,000 birds died. More than 7 thousand people took part in the rescue work. 223 thousand tons of oil poured into the water, forming a slick two thousand square kilometers in size. Oil also spread over 360 kilometers of the French coast. According to some scientists, the ecological balance in this region has not been restored until now.
2.In 1979 the largest accident in history occurred at the Mexican oil platform Ixtoc I. As a result, up to 460 thousand tons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The liquidation of the consequences of the accident took almost a year. It is curious that for the first time in history, special flights were organized to evacuate sea turtles from the disaster area. The leak was stopped only after nine months, during which time 460 thousand tons of oil got into the Gulf of Mexico. The total damage is estimated at $ 1.5 billion.
3. Also in 1979 the largest oil spill in history caused by collision of tankers. Then two tankers collided in the Caribbean: Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain. As a result of the accident, almost 290 thousand tons of oil got into the sea. One of the tankers sank. By a happy coincidence, the disaster occurred on the high seas, and not a single coast (the closest was the island of Trinidad) was not affected.
4. In March 1989 Exxon's Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince Williams Bay off the coast of Alaska. Over 48 thousand tons of oil spilled out into the ocean through the hole formed in the ship. As a result, more than 2.5 thousand square kilometers of the sea area were affected, 28 species of animals were under the threat of extinction. The area of the accident was inaccessible (it can only be reached by sea or by helicopter), which made it impossible for the services and rescuers to respond quickly. As a result of the disaster, about 10.8 million gallons of oil (about 260 thousand barrels or 40.9 million liters) spilled into the sea, forming an oil slick of 28 thousand square kilometers. In total, the tanker transported 54.1 million gallons of oil. About two thousand kilometers of the coastline was polluted with oil.
5. In 1990 Iraq has invaded Kuwait. Troops of the anti-Iraqi coalition, formed by 32 states, defeated the Iraqi army and liberated Kuwait. However, in preparation for the defense, the Iraqis opened oil terminals and emptied several oil tankers. This step was taken in order to impede the landing of troops. Up to 1.5 million tons of oil (various sources give different data) poured into the Persian Gulf. Since the fighting was going on, no one fought with the consequences of the disaster for some time. Oil covered about 1 thousand square meters. km. the surface of the bay and polluted about 600 km. coasts. In order to prevent further oil spills, US aircraft bombed several Kuwaiti oil pipelines.
6 In January 2000 a major oil spill occurred in Brazil. More than 1.3 million liters of oil got into the waters of Guanabara Bay, on the banks of which Rio de Janeiro is located, from the Petrobras pipeline, which led to the largest ecological disaster in the history of the metropolis. According to biologists, it will take nature almost a quarter of a century to fully recover the environmental damage. Brazilian biologists have compared the scale of the ecological disaster to the aftermath of the Gulf War. Fortunately, the oil was stopped. She passed along the river four urgently constructed barriers and "got stuck" only on the fifth. Some of the raw materials have already been removed from the surface of the river, some have spilled over special drainage channels dug in an emergency manner. The remaining 80 thousand gallons out of a million (4 million liters) that got into the reservoir, the workers scooped out by hand.
7. In November 2002 off the coast of Spain, the tanker Prestige broke and sank. 64 thousand tons of fuel oil got into the sea. € 2.5 million was spent on eliminating the consequences of the accident. After this incident, the EU closed access to its waters for single-hull tankers. The sunken ship is 26 years old. It was built in Japan and is owned by a company registered in Liberia, which in turn is operated by a Greek company registered in the Bahamas and certified by an American organization. The ship was chartered by a Russian company operating in Switzerland, which transports oil from Latvia to Singapore. The Spanish government has filed a $ 5 billion lawsuit against the US Maritime Bureau for the role it played in the Prestige disaster off Galicia last November.
8. In August 2006 of the year, a tanker crashed in the Philippines. Then were polluted 300 km of the coast in two provinces of the country, 500 hectares of mangrove forests and 60 hectares of algae plantations. The Taklong Marine Reserve was also affected, with 29 species of coral and 144 species of fish inhabited. As a result of the fuel oil spill, about 3 thousand Filipino families were affected. The Sunshine Maritne Development Corporation's Solar 1 was hired to transport 1,800 tonnes of fuel oil from the Philippine state-owned Petron. Local fishermen, who earlier could catch up to 40-50 kg of fish in a day, now hardly catch up to 10 kg. To do this, they have to go far from the places where pollution spreads. But even this fish cannot be sold. The province, which just left the list of the Philippines' 20 poorest regions, looks set to return to poverty for years to come.
9.November 11, 2007 During the year, a storm in the Kerch Strait caused an unprecedented emergency in the Azov and Black Seas - four ships sank in one day, six more ran aground, and two tankers were damaged. More than 2 thousand tons of fuel oil spilled out of the broken tanker "Volgoneft-139" into the sea, about 7 thousand tons of sulfur were on the sunken dry cargo ships. Rosprirodnadzor has estimated the environmental damage caused by the wreck of several ships in the Kerch Strait at 6.5 billion rubles. The damage from the death of birds and fish in the Kerch Strait was estimated at about 4 billion rubles.
10.April 20, 2010 at 22:00 local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a massive fire. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, 11 people are missing. At the time of the emergency, 126 people were working on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's productivity was 8,000 barrels per day. It is estimated that in the Gulf of Mexico, up to 5,000 barrels (about 700 tons) of oil are poured into the water per day. However, experts do not exclude that in the near future this figure may reach 50 thousand barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico "a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." Oil spots were found in the water column of the Gulf of Mexico (one spot 16 km long, 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil may be flowing out of the well until August.
Grade 10. Fuel and energy complex Option 1
1. Which of the American states is OPEC?
A) USA b) Mexico c) Brazil d) Panama e) Venezuela f) Chile
2.Where is OPEC headquarters located? a) Istanbul b) Vienna c) Warsaw d) Brussels e) London
3. Which way do the largest oil tankers go?
a) Through the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf to Europe; c) from Indonesia to Europe;
B) along the coast of Africa from the Persian Gulf to Europe; d) from Venezuela to the USA.
4. In Europe, the countries producing oil are:
a) Denmark, Italy, Norway, Great Britain;
B) France, Portugal, Switzerland;
C) Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Greece.
5. Set the correspondence:
1. Countries that produce coal for their own use only.
2. Countries exporting some of the coal. a) Japan, USA, Italy, UK, France.
3. Countries of importers. b) India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany, Great Britain.
C) China, Australia, Russia, Poland, Canada, South Africa.
6. Set the correspondence:
1. HPP a) Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Brazil, Tanzania, Nepal;
2. TPP b) France, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Belgium;
3. NPP c) South Africa, Germany, Australia, USA, China.
7. Among the countries of Eastern Europe in terms of reserves of hydropower resources, the following stand out:
1) Latvia and Lithuania; 2) Poland and the Czech Republic; 3) Bulgaria and Macedonia; 4) Romania and Slovakia.
8. The main coal producing countries are: A) developed B) developing
9. The highest share of energy produced at nuclear power plants is characteristic of:
A) for Poland B) for France C) for Norway
10. Why is oil transported from the countries of the Middle East both along Africa and through the Suez Canal? Isn't it more profitable to carry all the oil through the Suez Canal? After all, this transportation route is shorter.
11. How to explain that Japan, which ranks second in industrial production among the top eight countries, is in fourth place in terms of consumption of primary energy resources per capita?
Grade 10. Fuel and energy complex Option 2
1. How many countries are OPEC members? a) 5 b) 7 c) 10 d) 12 e) 15
2. Most of the oil is produced:
a) in the developed countries of Europe; c) in the developing countries of Africa;
B) in developing countries of Asia; d) in the developing countries of Latin America.
3. Select the leading African countries in oil production:
a) Nigeria b) Algeria c) Egypt d) Libya e) South Africa f) Gabon g) Morocco
4. Rank the countries in descending order of proven oil reserves.
1. Saudi Arabia 2. Iran 3. Russia 4. USA
5. The share of what type of fuel reached 80% in the 20th century? a) gas b) coal c) uranium d) oil
6. Set the correspondence:
1. The country ranks 10th in terms of electricity production, the share of hydroelectric power plants is 93%. A. France
2. The country ranks 7th in terms of electricity production, the share of nuclear power plants - 77%. B. Russia
3. The country ranks 4th in terms of electricity production, the share of thermal power plants - 72%. B. Brazil
7. Establish correspondence in the structure of power generation:
1. TPP A. 17%
2. HPP B. 20%
3. NPP V. 62%
4. Alternative power plants G. 1%
8. The largest oil producers in the world are the following countries:
A) Western Asia B) Africa C) Latin America
9. Locate power plants as their share in global electricity production decreases: A) HPP B) NPP C) TPP
10. Why are the main gas buyers in the Northern Hemisphere?
11. Why do India and China, which are among the top ten countries, in terms of industrial production belong to the group of countries with low consumption of energy resources?
Grade 10. Fuel and energy complex ANSWERS
Option 1
10. Why is oil transported from the countries of the Middle East both along Africa and through the Suez Canal? Isn't it more profitable to carry all the oil through the Suez Canal? After all, this transportation route is shorter.
The depth of the Suez Canal is shallow, so tankers with a large vessel draft cannot pass through it.
11. How to explain that Japan, being in the top eight countries in the second place in industrial production, in the consumption of primary energy resources per capita, is in fourth place?
Japan is successfully introducing energy-saving technologies into production, which is caused by necessity. Having no fuel of her own, she is forced to buy it.
Option 2
10. Why are the main gas buyers in the Northern Hemisphere?
Gas in the countries of the "North" is used not only as fuel, raw material for the chemical industry, but also as fuel at thermal power plants and thermal power plants. (developed countries, no or insufficient fuel resources)
11. Why do India and China, which are among the top ten countries, in terms of industrial production belong to the group of countries with low consumption of energy resources?
These countries with a high population and 1 person get a low indicator of energy consumption.
1.Russia takes an honorable first place among the countries producing oil. More than 10,124,000 barrels are produced daily in the Russian Federation. According to some reports, the remaining oil reserves do not exceed 50 billion barrels.More than 12% of all oil produced in the world is produced in Russia .
7th place - Samotlor 7.1 billion tons
2. Saudi Arabia is the second largest country in the world in terms of oil production. Saudi Arabia produces just over 10 million barrels per day. Today this country is the largest oil exporter. According to some reports, a fifth of the remaining oil in the world lies in the lands of Saudi Arabia.
Al-Gawar 20 billion tons
3. USA takes an honorable third place. According to experts, 21 billion barrels of oil lie in the lands of the United States. About 9.6 million barrels are produced daily in the United States, which is approximately 11% of all oil produced.
4. In China produce about 5% of all oil in the world. This equates to approximately 4.3 million barrels per day. The country's total reserves are just over 20 billion barrels.
5.Iran plays a very important role in the oil business. After all, the oil produced in Iran is of very high quality, which makes it possible to export it at more favorable prices. Iran produces about 4.25 million barrels per day.
6. Canada. The oil business is the main industry in North America. It is Canada that is the closest oil supplier to the United States. Meanwhile, more than 3.3 million barrels per day are produced in Canada.
7. Mexico. Along with Saudi Arabia and Canada, Mexico is also a supplier of oil to the United States. Pumping out about 3 million barrels daily, Mexico owns 3.5% of all oil produced in the world.
The largest in the world - Chicontepec 22.1 billion tons
8. United Arab Emirates produce about 2.8 million barrels per day, which is about 3.3% of all oil produced. However, the UAE ranks sixth in terms of oil reserves. Today the UAE has one of the most developed economies in Western Asia.
9. Brazil. The country has over 8.5 billion oil reserves, while producing just over 2.5 million barrels per day. In Brazil, the richest oil field is called Tupi oil Field. Carioca Sugar Loaf 11 billion tons Located in the Atlantic Ocean 330 km southeast of São Paulo
10. Kuwait. In this country, oil is produced at almost the same rate as in Brazil. The country is in no hurry to produce large volumes of oil. With just under 2.5 million barrels per day, the country knows total reserves are in excess of 104 billion barrels.
Outcomes: Russia, which officially refused to export oil and produces it at the fastest rates, has practically the highest gasoline prices. It's no secret that in many countries, including the UAE, the cost of high-quality gasoline does not exceed 3-6 rubles per liter. And only in our country, gasoline does not have the proper quality, it costs more than 25 rubles per liter, and besides that, at gas stations they manage to dilute it and not even brazenly refill it. The prime cost of gasoline in Russia is much lower. After all, more than 60% of the final cost is fees, taxes and excise duties.. 1 barrel oil ≈ 0.1364 tons = 136.4 oil.
Under the blow of Western sanctions, the largest Russian companies are losing capitalization, contracts, and technologies. Elena Korzun, Director General of the Association of Independent Oil and Gas Production Organizations AssoNeft, told FederalPress about how small oil producers live in these conditions, about technologies, taxes and even the quality of gasoline.
Do the sanctions affect the work of small oil companies? Can they live, for example, without Western technologies?
- Independent, including small oil-producing companies (NOCs) are part of the country's oil-producing complex. And it is not easy for the members of our association, as well as for large holdings. At the same time, small private companies do not work on shelf and shale deposits, and it was precisely on the supply of equipment and technologies for the development of such reserves that the sanctions were primarily aimed at. NOCs operate mainly on domestic and Chinese equipment and use innovative Russian technologies.
Only Russian and Chinese, but why?
- Companies in our sector do not use the services of large international service companies, unlike most vertically integrated oil companies. Such giants of the oil service as Schlumberger and Haliburton are, frankly, simply beyond the means for NOCs. Therefore, they either attract small domestic companies to contractors, or create their own service departments, what we call the “Surgutneftegaz way”. So our relatively large participants, such as the Irkutsk Oil Company, or even not very large ones, like Yukola-Neft, have their own service departments.
Of course, the development technology largely depends on the scale of the field; small areas have their own specifics. It is not for nothing that all the "fathers-commanders" of vertically integrated companies, such as Vagit Alekperov, Igor Sechin, say that small deposits are the area of competence of small private enterprises.
With technology - everything is clear. Then what worries independent oil producers today?
- High taxes. It is very important for oil companies in the independent sector when the tax maneuver is completed, because more than half of them have no export at all, and for them the promised reduction or zeroing of the export duty on crude oil does not make economic sense. But a simultaneous increase in the base rate of the mineral extraction tax (MET) will seriously increase the tax burden. I would like the Ministry of Energy to defend the position of the industry in the Ministry of Finance that the big tax maneuver should be completed by 2023.
It is necessary to complete the tax maneuver when the modernization of oil refineries, including the smallest ones, is completed. Independent refineries are almost 70% loaded with oil from our independent production facilities. We are two parts of one whole - independent production cannot exist without independent processing. And if the tax maneuver ends this year or next, it will be very bad for both small refineries and oil producers. Among independent private refineries, even such relatively large refineries as Antipinsky, Novoshakhtinsky refineries, which have 5-10 million tons of refining per year, do not have time to complete the modernization program. What can we say about small production.
At the same time, small factories are often accused of low-quality products.
- I emphasize, we are not for low-quality fuel. I myself am a motorist, I always refuel at the same company, and I am not at all an adherent of some kind of bodiness. But there is a line of products that these mini-refineries produce. These are, for example, raw materials for petrochemicals. Their products are not in demand by the transport industries - by mining and processing plants, agriculture, even summer residents.
It seems to me that the government does not fully understand the importance of independent refineries, they need to be dealt with in more detail, without accusing everyone in one fell swoop of producing counterfeit products. I’m not saying that everyone is white and fluffy, and I’m not saying that they are all needed. But you need to adhere to the line of an individual approach. This is not a bagel stand after all. Investors have invested large funds there, we will respect investors.
Independent production, independent processing facilities, independent service are links in a single chain in a market economy. And a network of independent gas stations. It should be understood that more than 60% of all petrol stations in the country are private petrol stations.
Are you, as a motorist, satisfied with their work?
- A network of private speakers is like walking distance shops, especially in the regions, in the countryside. This is convenient for residents, because not always a large vertically integrated company will put its large multi-station gas station in some wilderness. But there can be a small column.
Is there no doubt about the quality of fuel at private filling stations?
- You have to understand that there is a wholesale warehouse between the gas station and the plant. From my point of view, all possible violations occur exactly there, not on the column itself.
Who is your association?
- "AssoNeft" unites, I would say, the best part of the independent extracting and processing Russian companies. In general, last year, the NOC sector produced 23 million tons of oil, which is 4% of the country's total production. On the other hand, we have about 20% of the production drilling volumes, this is because the fields are young. By the way, for three years in a row, before Russia's accession to OPEC +, the sector of independent producers showed the highest rates of production growth.
What is the role of small businesses in the oil industry?
- The most efficient use of the country's mineral resource base. Let me give an example, in Tatarstan oil production fell for 19 years in a row, until Mintimer Shaimiev created small private oil companies in 1997 by his decree. And the situation has stabilized. Today small companies account for 20% of Tatarstan's production.
Not only Rosneft and Surgutneftegaz are also entering the new regions, but also private investors. For example, the company "Dulisma", "Irkutsk Oil Company" operating in Eastern Siberia. RNG is now going to Yakutia. A private trader is ready to invest money, but the state needs clear and clear rules of the game. I would like to note that with the arrival of Alexander Novak's team in the ministry, much more attention is paid to the independent sector than in previous years.
How are independent oil producers treated in the regions?
- For them, small producers, first of all, are important taxpayers. After all, these are the largest enterprises, for example, in the Saratov, Orenburg, Tomsk, Irkutsk and other regions, the Republic of Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan. Any oil-producing enterprise has a colossal turnover, it is income tax, property tax that remains in the region. Moreover, our companies are very law-abiding, because who will the check come to, a large enterprise or a small one? So they are very fond of in the regions.
Oil and products of its processing are transported, including by sea, using special ships, which are included in the category of tankers. Oil tankers are real monsters of the commercial fleet, which have received the status of world record holders in terms of their dimensions and carrying capacity.
Features of the design of tankers
At the present stage of shipbuilding, an oil tanker is a single-deck vessel with built-in tanks (tanks), capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo. The world's first self-propelled oil tanker "Zoroaster" had much more modest characteristics and could transport a maximum of 250 tons of raw materials.
The Zoroaster was built in Sweden by order of the Russian company Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership. The ship went to sea in 1877. Before its construction, ordinary sailing ships were used to transport oil around the world, while the cargo was poured into wooden barrels.
Now the hulls of tankers, as for most other ships, are built on the basis of a frame, to which a metal skin is attached. The specificity lies in the fact that inside the tanker's hull is divided into several tank compartments - tanks, which are filled with oil and oil products during loading. The volume of one such tank is at least 600 cubic meters, in large-tonnage vessels - more than 10 thousand cubic meters.
Tanker projects, which were developed until the seventies, provided for the construction of three-axle vessels with a middle superstructure with a wheelhouse, an elongated poop and a tank. Now tankers are produced without a middle superstructure. Living quarters and control posts are located on an increased quarter-deck.
Cargo spaces occupy up to 70% of the ship's length. The number of additional longitudinal bulkheads in the tank sector reaches two to three units. Bulkheads are installed to prevent overflow of cargo. At present, all tankers with a carrying capacity of more than a thousand tons are equipped with heaters for high viscosity oil or solidifying raw materials, operating on steam, electricity or heat from gases from the ship's engines.
The projects of tankers provide for the implementation of modern shipbuilding solutions - the installation of bow and stern thrusters, adjustable pitch propellers, remote control systems for the operation of power plants and cargo operations.
Operational safety
To a large extent, the design features of tankers are influenced by the requirements for the safety of transportation of oil cargo. Since 1996, under the terms of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), tankers are equipped with double hulls, the volume of tanks is also limited.
On the one hand, the fulfillment of such requirements makes it possible to reduce the threat of pollution of the marine environment, on the other hand, it makes the hull heavier, which ultimately leads to the inexpediency of building ships with a deadweight of more than 450 thousand tons. One of the newest popular concepts for the construction of a tanker with a high degree of safety and reliability provides for a design with double systems - not only the hull, but also two engines, engine rooms, propellers and rudders.
In order to ensure fire safety, the space of the tanks, which is not occupied by oil, is filled with inert gases. If a fire does occur, steam and foam are supplied to the tanks to extinguish the fire. In a number of ship models, fire extinguishing is provided by supplying engine exhaust gases, poor in oxygen, to the fire zone.
Due to the fact that a number of oil products, including their vapors, have a penetrating ability, the cargo compartments are separated from the rest of the ship's modules by special control compartments - meter-long vertical cofferdams.
If there is a middle superstructure on a tanker, it is also separated from the tanks by a two-meter section of the horizontal type. The safety compartments are constantly open and ventilated. They are used as storage locations for loading hoses.
There is no double bottom to prevent the accumulation of oil gases in the cargo areas. Nevertheless, such a constructive solution is not reflected in the high level of unsinkability of tankers, since their hull is equipped with a large number of bulkheads, and the tanks are hermetically sealed. Storages for fuel and water supplies are located at the end parts of the hull, including in the area of the double bottom of the engine room.
Despite serious design solutions to ensure the safe operation of tankers, accidents still happen to them - both due to breakdowns and due to crew errors. Recall recent incidents: in December 2016, due to a tanker malfunction, traffic through the Bosphorus was blocked, and in February of this year, a tanker from Panama ran aground.
How tankers load with oil
Tankers are loaded using oil loading complexes. The construction of oil berths started at the beginning of the last century, which was associated with the rapid development of the tanker fleet and the laying of oil pipelines. The first oil loading pier in Russia was erected in Batumi in 1906. Through its capacity, kerosene was loaded onto ships.
Modern berths are deep-water, provide loading and accounting of raw materials, bunkering and other operations with tankers in automatic mode. The infrastructure of the berthing complexes includes loading arms, metering units, valves for safety, regulating and shut-off purposes, blocks for preventing accidents during loading and fire extinguishing systems.
With the help of pumping units, oil and products of its processing are pumped through pipeline systems, including underwater ones, to stationary or floating oil loading berths, after which they enter the tanker. In turn, the unloading of the ship is carried out using ship pumps through pipelines laid in tanks or along the deck. The raw materials are pumped out of the tanks of the tanker and enter the tanks of sea and river transshipment points and bases, which also include berths.
When empty (without cargo), ballast water is pumped into the vessels' tanks. Before accepting the cargo, it is moved to port treatment facilities or to oil depots. There are tankers (such modifications were also built in the USSR), the design of which provides for the presence of ballast tanks between double hulls. This solution allows not to pollute ballast water with oil products. At the same time, ballast water does not require treatment before being discharged.
Classification of oil tankers
Tankers are classified according to various criteria, including deadweight (carrying capacity), dimensions and draft. Deadweight division is a specialized classification of oil tankers that applies only to this class of ships.
By deadweight, tankers are divided into categories:
- General Purpose (GP) - low-tonnage and general-purpose tankers designed to carry from 6 thousand to 24.999 thousand tons of oil or petroleum products, including bitumen.
- Medium Range (MR) - medium tonnage (from 25 thousand to 44.999 thousand tons).
- Large / Long Range1 (LR1) - large-tonnage first class (from 45 thousand to 79.999 thousand tons).
- Large / Long Range2 (LR2) - large-tonnage second class (from 80 thousand to 159.999 thousand tons).
- Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) - large-capacity tankers of the 3rd class (from 160 thousand to 320 thousand tons).
- Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC) - supertankers with a deadweight of 320 thousand tons, which are used to transport oil produced in the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico.
- Floating Storage and Offloading unit (FSO) - supertankers with a deadweight of more than 320 thousand tons, used only for unloading raw materials at sea on tankers of smaller classes.
Classification by dimensions and draft is carried out according to the criterion of the possibility of tankers passing through straits, canals, other water bodies and hydraulic structures. This classification is applicable not only to tankers, but also to other types of vessels.
In terms of size and draft, tankers are classified as follows:
- Seawaymax - can pass through the North American St. Lawrence Seaway.
- Panamax are capable of passing through the Panama Canal.
- Aframax are intended for use in the Black Sea, Mediterranean, East China and Caribbean Seas, on canals and ports that cannot accommodate larger tankers.
- Suezmax is a class assigned only to oil tankers and denotes their ability to pass through the Suez Canal.
- Malaccamax class tankers transport oil from the Persian Gulf countries to China, following the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia. The draft limit is 25 meters.
- Post-Malaccamax, whose draft is greater than that of the ships of the previous class, are forced to head for China through the deep Lombok Strait (Indonesia).
- The Capesize class includes tankers of the VLCC and ULCC categories, which, due to their size, are not able to pass through the Panama and Suez Canals. They follow routes along Cape Horn (Chile) or the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa).
Giant tankers
Among the tankers, which, due to their impressive dimensions, are real giant ships, there are record holders. The most famous representative of supertankers was the ULCC Knock Nevis (also called at various times Jahre Viking, Happy Giant, Seawise Giant and Mont), which changed several owners during its operation.
The Knock Nevis is still considered the largest ship in human history in terms of deadweight - 564,763 tons. The length of the tanker was 458.45 meters, the stopping distance exceeded ten kilometers. When fully loaded, the tanker's draft prevented it from passing through the Pas-de-Calais (English Channel) and the Suez Canal. In addition, due to its size, the ship was unable to pass through the Panama Canal.
The ship was built by the Japanese company Oppama and entered service in 1976. Before the conversion, the length of the tanker was 376.7 meters, deadweight - 418.610 thousand tons. Three years later, after a change of ownership to the Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Line, it underwent a restructuring, during which the deadweight was increased by almost 150 thousand tons. After modernization, the tanker acquired the status of the largest vessel on the planet.
The vessel cruised around the Cape of Good Hope, transporting oil from the Middle East to the United States. In May 1986, when the war was going on between Iran and Iraq, Knock Nevis was attacked by an Iranian fighter jet in the Strait of Hormuz. A fire broke out, three people died. The tanker ran aground. It was raised and restored by the Norwegian company Norman International only two years later.
After the entry into American and European ports of tankers without a double hull were banned, the ship's "career" ended and it was used as an oil storage facility in the Qatari Al Shaheed field. The ship made its last voyage to the coast of India, where during 2010 it was cut into metal due to the end of its service life. From the tanker, only one of the 36-ton anchors remained, which became an exhibit at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.
However, a number of experts are questioning the title of the Knock Nevis record holder, assigning the status of not only the largest tanker, but also the largest ship to the ULCC Batillus class oil tanker released the same year. The fact is that the Knock Nevis received its outstanding characteristics only after the restructuring. According to the project, Batillus initially had a length of 414.22 meters and a deadweight of 553.662 thousand tons. Thus, immediately after leaving the stocks, it outperformed the Knock Nevis. The tanker was built by the French company Chantiers de l'Atlantique by order of Shell (UK-Netherlands).
Since launch, Batillus has operated 25 flights, mainly from the Persian Gulf to Northern Europe. The tanker has been idle in ports for a long time. The company's management was not satisfied with the low frequency of flights and in 1985 decided to sell the tanker for scrap. In the same year, the ship was scrapped in Taiwan.
After the dismantling of the largest tankers Knock Nevis and Batillus, the status of the largest operating ships of this type passed to four of the same type ULCC-class ships - TI Oceania, TI Asia, TI Africa and TI Europe, built by the South Korean Daewoo Heavy within the Hellespont project in 2002-2004 years.
These ships have a deadweight of 441.585 thousand tons and a hull length of 380 meters. TI Oceania and TI Africa (originally Hellespont Fairfax and Hellespont Tapa, respectively) are owned by the Canadian shipping company Shipholding Group, and TI Asia and TI Europe (Hellespont Alhambra and Hellespont Metropolis, respectively) were acquired by Euronav (Belgium).
The tanker industry works effectively and makes money not only thanks to great transport opportunities, but also to established traditions and even some tricks. Oil tanker shipments, like any other major economic sector, have impressive performance and unique characteristics:
- The tanker fleet accounts for a third of the tonnage of merchant ships worldwide. The total carrying capacity of tankers reaches 489 million tons. Now there are 9435 tankers of various classes all over the world.
- Due to the low cost of freight, oil transportation by sea is characterized by high economic efficiency. According to this criterion, such a transportation scheme is second only to the supply of raw materials via pipelines.
- The overwhelming majority of tanker owners are companies from Greece. The same is true for the commercial fleet in general. The tanker market is highly opaque, with operators often resorting to a flag of convenience (usually Malta, Bahamas and Marshall Islands, Liberia or Panama).
- There are practically no environmental threats during transportation by tankers due to the high degree of safety and technological excellence of the vessels.
- The main risks for the industry are associated with geopolitics. Ships have to pass through channels and straits, the overlap of which can not only disrupt contracts, but also affect the price of oil. So, in the event of a conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the movement of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz may be stopped. Now this route moves up to 17 million barrels of "black gold" per day. Another example is that the closure of the Strait of Malacca will completely deprive China of oil delivered by sea.
- In recent years, there has been a growing trend of oil companies using tankers as storage facilities for raw materials in anticipation of a more favorable market situation. Now they simultaneously store up to 180 million barrels of oil, which is more than double the 2014 figure. There are up to four hundred storage tankers in the ports of Singapore.
- When performing illegal operations involving the illegal transfer of oil at sea to other ships (as the Iranians did during the international sanctions), the crews turn off the transponders, which makes it possible to hide the location and draft of the offending tankers, that is, in fact, make data on changes inaccessible the weight of their load. Such ships have to be tracked using alternative methods, including satellite imagery. Pronedra wrote earlier that Iran, in particular, sells oil directly from tankers.
- The degree of automation of modern tankers is so high that even the largest vessels of this type can be operated by one person. Supertanker captains are tacitly ranked among the naval elite.
- In order to prevent heating and evaporation of cargo, the outer deck of oil tankers is sometimes painted white, while sun glasses are provided to seafarers to avoid harmful effects on the crew's vision of bright reflected light.
- The average service life of a supertanker is 40 years.
Tanker transportation is not just a separate segment of oil logistics, but also a powerful independent economic sector, a whole world of leisurely steel giants delivering colossal volumes of "black gold" to different parts of the world. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of shipbuilders creating tankers not only to the development of the oil business and the raw materials market, but also to the progress of engineering, the improvement of the maritime transport system and an increase in the degree of environmental safety.
