History of The Oil Tanker

The history of the oil tanker is part of the evolution of the technology of oil transportation alongside the oil industry. Although man's use of oil reaches to prehistory, the first modern commercial exploitation dates back to James Young's manufacture of parafin in 1850. In these early days, oil from Upper Burma was moved in earthenware vessels to the river bank where it was then poured into boat holds.

In the 1850s, the Pennsylvania oil fields became a major supplier of oil, and a center of innovation after Edwin Drake had struck oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The first oil well in the United States was dug here in 1859, initially yielding around ten barrels per day. Within two years, the Titusville field was providing 3,000 barrels per day (480 m3/d).

The invention of oil refining led to the availability of kerosene as lamp oil, which has a smokeless combustion in contrast with the until then highly used whale oil. The lamp oil became known as Pennsylvania Kerosine. Due to overfishing, whale oil became rare and expensive. By this time, petroleum oil had already begun to supplant fish, whale, and vegetable oils for applications such as indoor and outdoor lighting, and transatlantic export had already begun.

Break-bulk boats and barges were originally used to transport Pennsylvania oil in 40-US-gallon (150 l) wooden barrels. But transport by barrel had several problems. The first problem was weight: the standard empty barrel weighed 64 pounds (29 kg), representing 20% of the total weight of a full barrel. Also barrels were leaky, and could only be carried one way. Finally, barrels were themselves expensive. For example, in the early years of the Russian oil industry, barrels accounted for half the cost of petroleum production.

The movement of oil in bulk was attempted in many places and in many ways. Modern oil pipelines have existed since 1860. In 1863 two sail-propelled tankers were built on England's River Tyne. These were followed in 1873 by the first oil-tank steamer, the Vaderland, which was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company for the Belgium Red Star Line. The vessel's use was curtailed by U.S. and Belgian authorities citing safety concerns. By 1871 the Pennsylvania oil fields were making limited use of oil tank barges and cylindrical railroad tank-cars similar to those in use today.