The advent of petroleum births a new era in global development and one of the main areas of growth is transportation. Petroleum exploration has brought about a total change in the scopes of transport in all spheres of humanity.
Also, the economic importance of oil transportation by sea to global maritime trade cannot be over-emphasized.
Why Oil Transportation by Sea?
Although there are other means of transporting petroleum products from producers to consumers, industry players prefer transportation by sea. One main reason we cannot exempt from here is product volume.
Imagine if producers or traders have to transport ten million barrels of petroleum by road? That will not only require several trucks but also constitute road hazards to other road users. The volume of crude oil and petroleum products transported from one port to another is high, thereby making use of sea transportation is inevitable.
Also, another reason petroleum producers prefer transportation by sea is the distance between production locations and the consumers. It will take several months to ship Crude oil from Nigeria to other countries that are accessible through the land.
Additionally, without transportation by sea, it will be impossible to transport petroleum products from one continent to the other because of some ocean barriers.
How Sea Transportion Works
There are specific vessels for oil transportation by sea. They come in different sizes with provision for cargo and crew member’s safety. However, transporting oil by sea starts with an initial agreement between oil producers and vessel owners.
The essence of the charter agreement is to prevent vessel owners from committing themselves to other oil producers who may want to contact them for other businesses.
In general, there are lots of factors you may need to consider before choosing a vessel. Moreover, it doesn’t make business sense to ignore safety and security standards when deciding on vessel chartering.
Advantages of Oil Transportation by Sea
Every wise business decision comes with enormous benefits. We may not be able to know if oil transportation by sea is one of such until list out its benefits. Let us now take a look at the many benefits of shipping your oil and petroleum products via ocean tankers.
First, transporting crude oil by sea is cost-effective. Compare to inland tankers, the cost of shipping petroleum products via ocean tankers is small. Imagine the likely cost using inland tankers to ship two million barrels of petroleum from Nigeria to South Africa via inland tankers.
Flexible Water Ways: The waterways has made it possible for producers to reach other continents. Without marine tankers, shipping of oil from one continent to the other would have been impossible. Also, it breaks all barriers that an exporter may encounter while trying to cross other countries’ borders.
Large Capacities: Marine tankers can carry a large amount of oil from one point to the other. That helps in reducing traffic congestion on roads.
Multiple Barges or tankers Available: Depending on the volume of oil you are planning to ship, there are numerous barges or vessels to use.
Disadvantages of Oil Transportation by Sea
Some disadvantages of oil transportation by sea are longer delivery time, bad weather, and goods tracking difficulty.
Longer Delivery Time: One of the disadvantages of moving oil by sea is late delivery due to slow vessel movement. Oil transportation by sea isn’t ideal when you are considering swift delivery.
Bad Weather: Weather conditions affect sea transportation. Poor weather condition is one of the main challenges facing oil transportation by sea.
Difficult to monitor goods in transit: Nothing could be more traumatic than losing contact with your crew members who are on the high sea. Loss of signals from a vessel prevents cargo owners from knowing the current cargo location.