Petroleum Industry

As modern society consumes larger amounts of fuel every day, the energy industry has become a very important part of the development and infrastructure of every country, and so has the petroleum industry, which includes oil companies, refiners and so on. Fuel oil is essential to land, sea and air transportation or heating and nowadays it is required in greater quantities than ever.

A commonly used type of fuel oil is gas oil, generally used for industrial heating, off-road diesel vehicles and for some cars and ships. Diesel gas oil can also be used to produce small amounts of electricity, but it's really polluting and expensive. In Europe, diesel gas oil is most commonly used to fuel about 40% of the cars, 90% of the SUVs and most of the trucks. Many people prefer diesel gas oil-powered cars because they have lower fuel consumption and produce only about 69% of the polluting gasses. On the other hand, burning diesel gas oil produces greater quantities of sulfur than gasoline.

The transportation of oil plays an essential part in the logistics and economy of the oil companies, as well as in the effectiveness of the use of oil. Pipeline transport provides the most economical method to transport great amounts of gas and it was pioneered in the late 19th century by a company in Azerbaijan. The pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes with diameters ranging from 30 centimeters to 1.20 meters and they're usually built over land. Given the fact that building pipeline systems under the sea is very expensive and demanding, most of the oil at sea is transported with the help of special ships, called "tanker ships".
The mechanism is simple: the oil is pumped through the pipes by a system of pump stations built along de pipeline. The oil usually flows through the pipes at a speed ranging between 1 and 6 meters per second.

Let's take for example the Williams' Company Transco pipeline system, which has been functioning for over 50 years now. The Transco pipeline moves natural gas through its approximately 11.000 mile system, stretching across the United States from South Texas to New York City and is a great provider to the northeastern and southeastern states. Transco pipeline delivers natural gas from the Gulf Coast to areas like New York and New Jersey.
The Transco pipeline has a system design capacity of 7.8 billion cubic feet per day and a seasonal storage of 203.4 billion cubic feet. It supplies the Gulf Coast and it has market areas such as the Southeast, mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. Also, the Transco pipeline system has about 11.000 miles of pipeline with 43 compressor stations built along the way to keep the gas moving. One must admit that the numbers are quite impressive!

Along with the great amounts of oil to be transported and the thousands of miles long pipeline systems came the need to preserve the accuracy of the drilling and exploration as well as the transportation of oil. And so came to life specialized companies to do that.
Rextag Strategies is one of the leaders in this field of expertise. Using GIS (Geographic Information Systems), mapping and cartographic capabilities and high quality graphic design, the company provides all that is needed for the effectiveness and success of all projects. The company has a competitive advantage compared to others in the same field of expertise, providing very useful information that cannot be found anywhere else. Recently, Rextag Strategies has released the "Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Map Book", the first of its kind, offering valuable information about the top 40 US natural gas pipeline systems.

The energy and petroleum industries have both reached high levels of performance and efficiency during the last two decades and many companies have developed methods of exploiting and making good use of the planet's resources. Still, there is a constant threat to the environment that each and every company should consider, no matter the financial damage to their budget.


About the Author
By visiting our website you will not only be able to find out everything there is to know about gas oil, fuel oil or the Transco pipeline system, but you will also be able to purchase The Interstate Natural Pipelines Map Book - a complete, updated, professional and very valuable resource you will most lik