Crude Oil Truck Transport: When and Why
Crude oil truck transport — also called "truck out" or "road transport" — is the practice of hauling crude oil from the well site to a pipeline terminal, refinery, or storage facility, using tanker trucks instead of pipelines. Most oil moves by pipeline, but there are plenty of situations where trucks are the only option. Let's look at when and why crude oil is hauled by truck.
When Is Crude Oil Transported by Truck?
Crude oil is transported by truck when:
- The well is not connected to a pipeline: This is the most common reason. If a well is in a remote area, far from any pipeline, you have to haul the oil out by truck. Building a pipeline to a single well is often not economical — the well might not produce enough oil to justify the cost of a pipeline. In that case, truck transport is the only option.
- New wells are being brought online: When a new oil field is developed, the pipelines aren't built yet. The first few months or years of production are usually hauled by truck, until the pipeline is in place.
- Temporary production: Sometimes you have a well that produces oil for a short time, then declines. If it's not worth building a pipeline for a short-term well, you just haul it out by truck.
- Remote or marginal wells: There are thousands of small, marginal wells that produce a few barrels a day. Building a pipeline to them is not economical, so they're trucked out.
- Interim transport: Sometimes a pipeline is down for maintenance, or there's a problem. In that case, you need to haul the oil by truck until the pipeline is fixed.
How Does Crude Oil Truck Transport Work?
Here's how it works:
- The well site: The oil comes out of the well, and goes into a storage tank at the well site. When the tank is full, a tanker truck shows up, loads the oil, and drives off.
- The tanker truck: Crude oil is hauled in heavy-duty tanker trucks, designed for carrying flammable liquids. They have special safety features — explosion-proof electrical systems, grounding cables, emergency shutoff valves, and more.
- The destination: The truck drives to a pipeline terminal, a refinery, or a storage facility, unloads the oil, and drives back to the well site for another load.
A typical crude oil tanker truck carries 200-250 barrels of oil (about 8,000-10,000 gallons). That sounds like a lot, but compare that to a pipeline, which can carry hundreds of thousands of barrels a day. Truck transport is much more expensive per barrel than pipeline transport.
How Much Does Crude Oil Truck Transport Cost?
The cost of crude oil truck transport depends on the distance, the volume, and the local rates. As a rough rule of thumb, it costs $1-3 per barrel per 100 miles. So if you're hauling oil 100 miles, it costs $1-3 per barrel. If you're hauling it 500 miles, it costs $5-15 per barrel. Compare that to pipeline transport, which costs $1-5 per barrel total, regardless of distance (roughly). So truck transport is much more expensive.
That's why oil companies only use truck transport when they have to. If a well is far from a pipeline, and the oil has to be hauled 200 or 300 miles, the transport cost can eat up most of the profit. That's why marginal wells — wells that produce just a little oil — are often shut in when oil prices drop.
FAQ
Q: Is crude oil truck transport safe?
A: It's generally safe, but there are risks. Tanker trucks can crash, and if they crash, the oil can spill. But compared to pipelines, which can leak for months before anyone notices, truck spills are usually smaller and easier to clean up. The industry has very strict safety regulations for hauling crude oil.