Oil and product pipelines: Overview
Buried steel arteries carrying crude and fuels across continents
What this tile covers Pipelines carrying crude oil and refined products on land and under the sea. Share of use 28% share of world energy carried (2024)Share of world total energy supply (592 EJ in 2024, Energy Institute Statistical Review 2025, physical energy content) carried at least once by this mode; overlaps allowed, so shares do not add to 100 (calculated) Over 83% of US crude and products move by pipeline (CRS, 2025), applied to world oil supply of 199 EJ (Energy Institute). US proxy, so a weak estimate; a barrel may also travel by tanker, so it overlaps with that tile. Source: DOT's Federal Pipeline Safety Program: Background and Issues, Congressional Research Service.
Key facts
| Form | Liquid fuel |
Included from the reference tables
- Crude oil pipelines
- Refined-product pipelines
Linked to the material world
Oil Crude oilSt SteelAlso in Liquid and gaseous fuels
Tk Tankers, barges and fuel trucksGP Gas pipelines and city gasLNG LNG chainLPG CNG, LPG and biogas distributionH2T Hydrogen and hydrogen carriersExplore paths from here
More on this tile in the tabs above: how it works, efficiency and losses, technology advances, value chain, geopolitics and regulation, unit economics, impact on the biosphere.