Global fleet of oil tankers by type April 2020

As of April 2020, there were 810 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) worldwide. Oil tankers, also known as petroleum tankers, are paramount for transporting oil from their extraction site to refineries or further onwards to distribution centers. Vessels vary in size depending on the area or canal they need to traverse, with VLCCs having a storage capacity of around two million barrels of crude oil. In 2020, seaborne transportation of crude oil amounted to 1.86 billion metric tons.

Seaborne trade capacity

In the past decade there has been a notable rise in the capacity of oil tankers for world maritime trade. Combined storage capacity reached 601 million tons deadweight in 2020, which was an increase of over 150 million tons deadweight compared with 2010, showcasing the continued importance of oil tankers for global oil trade.

Oil transportation via pipelines

Although often safer to run and cheaper to maintain, pipelines are mainly used to connect extraction and refinery sites over land. The operational capacity of oil pipelines worldwide is close to 100 million barrels per day. And an additional 3.3 million barrels of daily capacity is currently under construction.