How is gasoline transported from the refinery's to every gas station nationwide?

Question

I know the vast majority of gas come from Houston Texas but do they distribute these billions of gallons nationwide. I see large gas tanker/truck but I can't believe these trucks drive from Texas to Hometown Michigan everyday.

(My logic speaking) There must be some type of pipe-line to distribution area's, I don't know if this is possible

anyhone know?

Answer 1

There are miles and miles of underground gas lines that take the gas from the refineries on teh Gulf Coast to other sub refineries all over the country, from there tanker trucks will take the gas to local fuel stations

Answer 2

Mostly its by truck that takes a lot of fuel and that is why they are so much higher.. piplelines are in hard to get to places like Alaska.

Answer 3

Pipelines are used to transport many products to the distribution point as well as rail cars.

Most distributors deal in everything from various grades of gasoline, to kerosene, to diesel, to jet fuels and aviation gasoline. Where "pigs" used to be used to seperate the product in the lines, the volumes of fuels that intermingle are sold to plants that don't have specific fuel requirements, (cement plants, for example.)

Usually, from the distributor to the final sales point, fuel is trucked by tanker from the distribution point to the final vendor. Direct pipelines to major airports aren't unheard of, but still require bulk storage tanks for quality controls approval before being allowed to enter an aircraft. Rail shipments are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

When I used to order avgas for KADS, it came out of Deer Park. When I ordered Jet A, it came out of Irving. The avgas drivers actually asked me to start increasing the bulk I ordered in to make a better profit. (It also periodically came out of Borger,) indicating a pipeline.

Now that I have bored you to tears, yes, there are pipelines for the distribution of petroleum products. They don't always run directly to the station, and there's some mark up for paying the trucker, but that's the way things are done.

JT

Answer 4

UPS

Answer 5

Okay, here's the deal:

First, Gulf of Mexico oil (what you call Houston, really ranges all the way toNew Orleans) supplies mostly the Midwest and some of the East Coast.  The East Coast also receives significant amounts of foreign oil.  The West Coast gets a lot of Alaskan oil and Russian oil.  Canadian oil, our largest source, and Mexican oil, our second largest source are spread on both coasts and some interior areas.  Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil run third and fourth, respectively, in terms of imports.

Refineries receive crude oil from the source, typically by pipeline, supertanker or barge.  Pipeline is the most cost effective way to transport petroleum.  Once the product is refined and ready to ship, the refineries send fuels to terminals.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this, but the primary and least expensive are barges and pipelines.  We're talking about pushing millions of gallons every day, discrete units like tank trucks and rail cars can't economically manage that kind of volume.

Terminals located by bodies of water can receive by tanker or barge, but landlocked terminals, the vast majority, receive tenders via pipeline.  Pipelines are inspected constantly and underground lines are subject to corrosion from moisture.  The terminals are connected to the pipelines.  Sensors, pumps and switches allow the pipeline operators to monitor the lines, open valves and change the rate of flow from thousands of miles away.  I've been in our Pipeline Control Center and it's truly amazing.

Once the product is in the pipeline, it moves constantly until it is pumped into the receiving tank at the terminal.  This allows flexibility to the owner of the product to exchange with other companies.  They can buy and sell product in the line to meet their needs.  The products, amazingly, don't mix in the pipes.  They are pushed in in a way to keep products that do mix from being next to one another.

The terminal stores the fuel in massive tanks and can store products from many different companies in the same tank, since base products are identical, it's only when the product is loaded at the terminal rack into the tanker for delivery to your local station that it becomes "Exxon", "Shell", or "Mom & Pop" fuel.  Special injectors add the unique compounds that make gasoline different during loading.  The fuel is then driven to your local station, dropped in the storage tanks where you pump it into your vehicle.

To correct a couple of errors:

Pigs are only used to clean lines, not separate product.  

Pipelines are only buried when absolutely necessary.  It's much easier to inspect and maintain above ground lines.

Answer 6

A combination of Rail cars,Tanker trucks,Pipelines,and oceangoing ships.Most oil for Michigan comes from the Esso refinery in Sarnia,Ontario.the east coasts get it from New Jersey.West Coast comes from just outside LA,California.New Orleans handles most supertankers as it has an ocean buoy just outside the Lousiana Delta.I'm from Pontiac,MI  originally.