# Tankers, barges and fuel trucks: Efficiency and losses

Why giant ships burn so little of what they carry

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/efficiency/

What this tab covers How much energy is lost while it moves and while it waits in storage or transit, and how much energy the transport itself consumes, in per cent.

Big ships move oil with little energy: a VLCC round trip from the Gulf to Japan burns roughly 0.6 to 1.6% of its cargo's energy. Rail and barges burn under half a percent per 1,000 km, trucks about three times as much. Spills now lose a tiny fraction of oil shipped.

Chart: Efficiency ranges
 Used to drive transport Lost in transit

#### Losses by measure

| Measure | Range | Type | What is measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| **VLCC fuel, Gulf to Japan round trip** | 0.6 to 1.6%^[3](https://www.nyk.com/english/stories/01/04/20250718.html)^[4](https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/oil-tankers-the-economics/) | Used to drive transport | Bunker fuel per round trip as a share of a 2.2 million barrel cargo: 11,000 drums (about 13,800 barrels) per NYK, against 600 to 700 b/d over 45 to 50 days (27,000 to 35,000 barrels) in an analyst model (calculated) |
| **Rail tank car, diesel per 1,000 km** | 0.48%^[21](https://nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org/file/43/Final%202022%20NWF%20TTI%20study%20press%20release.pdf) | Used to drive transport | Diesel at 472 ton-miles per gallon (about 40 kWh per gallon) as a share of cargo energy, oil at about 11 MWh per short ton (calculated) |
| **River barge, fuel per 1,000 km** | 0.34%^[21](https://nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org/file/43/Final%202022%20NWF%20TTI%20study%20press%20release.pdf) | Used to drive transport | 675 ton-miles per gallon, same method (calculated) |
| **Road tanker, diesel per 1,000 km** | 1.5%^[21](https://nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org/file/43/Final%202022%20NWF%20TTI%20study%20press%20release.pdf) | Used to drive transport | 151 ton-miles per gallon, same method (calculated) |
| **Oil spilled from tankers, 2025** | 0.0001%^[1](https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/special_topics/World_Oil_Transit_Chokepoints)^[11](https://www.itopf.org/news/news/itopf-publishes-2025-oil-tanker-spill-statistics/) | Lost in transit | About 4,000 tonnes spilled against about 4 billion tonnes of seaborne oil a year (calculated) |

#### Holding periods and inventory

| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| **VLCC round trip, Middle East to Japan** | about 50 days^[3](https://www.nyk.com/english/stories/01/04/20250718.html) |
| **Tankers in the Gulf around Hormuz, 21 July 2026** | 728 tracked, 381 of them at anchor^[15](https://hellenicshippingnews.com/tanker-count-on-both-sides-of-hormuz-exceeds-700-as-strait-tensions-reignite) |

Fuel per tonne falls with ship size and rises steeply with speed: owners speed up when freight rates are high and slow-steam when they are low. The two VLCC estimates differ on speed and voyage length, so treat them as a range.

Losses on board come mainly from vapour released during loading and oil clinging to tank walls; neither was quantified in the sources. In 2026 the bigger cost was time: hundreds of tankers waited near Hormuz and rerouted ships spent weeks longer at sea, removing capacity and driving rates up.

#### Sources

1. [World Oil Transit Chokepoints (last updated 3 March 2026)](https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/special_topics/World_Oil_Transit_Chokepoints) US EIA, 2026
2. [From our vessels around the world: VLCC](https://www.nyk.com/english/stories/01/04/20250718.html) NYK Line, 2025
3. [Oil tankers: the economics (analyst model, updated 26 March 2026)](https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/oil-tankers-the-economics/) Thunder Said Energy, 2026
4. [ITOPF publishes 2025 oil tanker spill statistics](https://www.itopf.org/news/news/itopf-publishes-2025-oil-tanker-spill-statistics/) ITOPF, 2026
5. [Tanker count on both sides of Hormuz exceeds 700 as strait tensions reignite](https://hellenicshippingnews.com/tanker-count-on-both-sides-of-hormuz-exceeds-700-as-strait-tensions-reignite) Hellenic Shipping News, 2026
6. [A modal comparison of domestic freight transportation effects on the general public, 2001-2019 (TTI study, press release)](https://nationalwaterwaysfoundation.org/file/43/Final%202022%20NWF%20TTI%20study%20press%20release.pdf) National Waterways Foundation (industry-commissioned), 2022

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/correlation/index.md)
- [How it works](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/explain/index.md)
- [Technology advances](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/advances/index.md)
- [Value chain](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/valuechain/index.md)
- [Geopolitics and regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/geopolitics/index.md)
- [Unit economics](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/economics/index.md)
- [Impact on the biosphere](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/biosphere/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/energy/e_tankers/links/index.md)