The great debate over energy transport: Trains or pipeline… or tanker

Transporting oil by pipelines is more than twice as safe as using rail, and marine tankers are safer still

We’ve heard the debate between rail and pipeline countless times. The general consensus by experts and professionals is that pipelines are safer, but by how much?

A recent study published by the Fraser Institute dived into answering this question as well as providing insight into what might be the unlikely hero of energy transportation: tankers.

The report, using data between 2004 and 2015, highlighted key trends of incidents across the various methods of transporting energy.

Pipelines experienced 0.05 occurrences per million barrels of oil equivalent (Mboe) transported. But occurrences don’t necessarily mean spills. The study reports that 70 per cent of occurrences result in a leakage of less than one cubic metre of product, and 17 per cent don’t result in a spill at all.

Data also showed that pipelines were 2.5 times less likely to experience a release of product than rail when transporting a million barrels of oil.

This might appear to put pipeline in first place when considering energy transport, but the almost spotless record of tankers poses a different option.

Since the 1990s, not a single major spill has occurred from either oil tankers or vessels in Canadian waters. Data put forth asserts that the chances of a spill occurring of over 10,000 tonnes are once every 242 years.

Most people would never experience this in a lifetime.

The study offers hard facts and statistics on safety and leakage rates between rail, pipeline and tanker. It’s good to know, but it’s also information that is compulsory in decision-making on energy projects.

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