Gadgetopia

even though i know the supertankers are huge objects that carry massive amounts of oil, i still think it's pretty amazing that it "only" takes 10 to supply the entire US for a day. i mean.... the US is pretty damned big. Maybe my amazement would be better placed at the enormous size of the ships.....

Except the U.S. produces quite a bit of it's own oil. 40% is still produced domestically - maybe more...

Also factor in the oil that's piped in from Canada. I believe they supply in the neighborhood of 10 percent (or more.)

I'm with the first poster - I'm astonished it would only take 10 or so supertankers to supply the entire US oil needs for a day - there are rather more than 10 ports in the US capable of taking a supertanker (OK, maybe only a few more).

The big question is, how long does it take to empty/load one of these ships?

A few yearsack when I studdied this subject, there were no us super tanker (tie up) ports. The nearest to me (I am in NH) was Port Hawksbury, Nova Scotia, Canada. For the Geographically challenged, that is in the small space between the two Islands that make up Nova Scotia. As far as I know, this is the only place in North America where one of these fellas can tie up to a pier.. Turnarround (oil off, water ballast on) time at a pier is less than a day and highly automated. Interested? I recomend Noel Mostert's book, 'Supership'. MH

Deane,

Thanks for posting this! I didn't quite feel compelled to comment when I first read it (shortly after you posted it, last year), but tonight I decided it's time. I just finished citing this entry for the third of fourth time, this time as part of a discussion about worldwide petroleum consumption and its potential impact on global warming (if any)..

I don't really remember the circumstances surrounding the previous times that I went back and found this entry to share with others. I think it was always more casual--mostly just to show friends and co-workers some big-ass ships. :)

Tonight, though, I was contrasting the 2004 numbers you mentioned, with some more recent numbers that Chris Nelder gave in an April 23, 2008 article: "High Gasoline Prices Are Here to Stay - Debunking the Myths about High Gas Prices".

The most startling new information he provided was: "For the first time this year, the combined oil consumption of China, India, Russia and the Middle East will exceed that of the U.S.. Even with all our efforts to curb domestic demand, worldwide oil demand will increase about 2 percent this year, according to the IEA."

That's quite a change from the 2004 numbers you cited, where the US consumed 20 million barrels/day, while the next highest consumption was by China, with only 6 million.

It really makes me question how much my CF light bulbs are actually going to help things. :(

If you are interested in Super Tanker you can read the book Brooklyn Steel Blood-Tenacity. It will take you into the world of shipbuilding in Brooklyn in the 1970's. Great pictures.

Since the vast majority of our oil comes from Canada and Mexico, big oil ships are not that important, but nonetheless I find the world of big ships and small ships and ocean going commerce most interesting. Thanks for all of your thoughts...L

Check out the large supertanker docked at the Aruba refinery in Google maps.
It's about 210ft wide and 1300ft long.

As we have a historic drought in Australia and some cites on the coast have no water dams, I ask this question. Is it feasible and cost effective to move water by supertanker from one State to another. I can imagine a supertanker discharging into a nearby lake or waterway.

Seems to me that if Isambard Brunel was around today he would find a way to make this proposal to work.

Like it or not, oil is here to stay. its where we get asphalt for roads, plastic, grease for bearings, and God only knows what else. I am a barge tankerman, and i load and unload barges (not ships) regularly. we might get lucky and load a barge at a rate of 8-10 thousand barrels an hour,
whereas ships, at least the ones at exxon baton rouge might load at about 40,000 an hour. and that was on a 500,000 bbl ship. thats smokin' but I think we load proportionately faster, but you have to on your toes or you can have a screwup. The fastest Ive ever loaded a barge by myself was 2 hr and 40 mins, (8200 an hour) and me and another guy did 2 at once in 5 hours... (9200 an hour.) the fastest rate ive ever done though was 13,000 an hour but it was a sea going barge and held 165,000 bbls. at about 6000 bbls it sounds like rocks going thru the pipeline. like the one comment, I been to most inland and some offshore docks between Brownsville Tx to searsport Maine, and I have never seen a supertanker. The word ive heard is the smaller ships go to deep water and lighter them and bring them in

Oil is here to stay??????? Somebody thinks oil is a renewable energy source. For your information, we've already used up roughly half of all the oil we had, that we will EVER have. No. Oil is not "here to stay". Take off your hallucinogen filled goggles and smell the coffee. We're due for a very rough awakening somewhere between 2010 and 2015. If we're lucky, we'll go the way of Cuba (Cuba HAS gone through its own "peak oil crisis" after the collapse of the soviet Union, and has made a pretty decent comeback... yes it's industrial output is "marginal" but guess where ours will be without oil). If we're unlucky, it will be more like Haiti and Somalia. I hope we'll have the courage and foresight to start integrating the Cuban measures before the shit hits the fan, to soften the blow. The current financial crisis is only a forerunner. The economy will never completely recover, as it will appear that we have a new boom, the price of oil will skyrocket again, and something else will crumble... there will be the same blame game, where the perpetrators of this new economic collapse will be called upon to be chastized. And another round of economic almost boom, and another collapse. It will take time for people to realize what is happening, cause we just want to believe that "oil is hear to stay" .