Over land and short distances across the sea, crude can be transported by pipeline. A pipeline requires huge capital investment but, once it is constructed, labor and maintenance costs are relatively low. For long distance transport by sea, tankers are indispensable and today's vessels are designed to operate flexibly and efficiently to the highest technical and safety standards. Moving oil and oil products around the world is a huge undertaking.
Oil accounts for almost half of the world's seaborne trade.
The world tanker fleet totals more than 250,000 million dwt, a third of which is owned by the major oil companies. In the early days of the industry, crude oil was generally refined close to where it was produced. As demand for a greater variety of products grew, however, it became more practical to transport the crude oil to refineries in the consumer countries. Then Marcus Samuel, the founder of Shell Transport and Trading, adopted the idea of building ships which were in effect floating tanks. This signaled the birth of the oil tanker.