Transportation and Logistics of Hydrocarbons

The transport of hydrocarbons (natural gas and oil), from production points to transformation and consumption points, is based on a set of technologies and infrastructures with a high investment cost.

Oil is transported mainly by sea via tankers and by land via pipelines. Rail or road transport by land is much smaller. In 2020 the world oil fleet consisted of approximately 810 VLCC, 668 Aframax, 571 Suezmax (names that identify carriers with different deadweight tonnage, TPL) and 161 other ships with lower TPL (e.g. Panamax and others). This fleet has enabled the maritime trade of approximately 1855 Mt of oil. Consumption and CO2 emissions vary according to the characteristics of the tanker and the weather conditions encountered during the voyage. In general, specific consumption ranges from 2.2 to 3.8 gr / t-km, while specific CO2 emissions are between 3.8 and 6.6 gr / t-km. The oil pipelines, often underground, are divided into sections to ensure a greater degree of safety and allow the transport of billions of barrels of oil every year worldwide. Pumping stations ensure the circulation of oil within the pipeline, keeping it at a pressure of 60-80 and even 100 bar. The energy consumption of pumping is approximately 0.5 - 1% of the amount of energy transported over distances between 500 and 100 km.

The worldwide transport of natural gas is instead ensured for about 60% by gas pipelines and 40% by methane tankers in liquid (LNG) or compressed (CNG) form or other systems in much smaller quantities. In recent years there has been a steady growth in the share of LNG worldwide from 31% in 2016 to 40% in 2020, with a similar reduction in pipeline transport from 69% to 60%. In pipeline gases too, compression stations are essential components for ensuring the regular flow of natural gas in the transport network. Along the onshore pipelines there are compression stations every 50 - 150 km. For 1000 km of onshore pipeline, compressor stations require an amount of energy between 1.8 and 2.7% of the amount of energy transported. The world fleet of LNG transport vessels grew to 669 units in 2020 (+ 300 compared to 2010) and is expected to further increase to 874 units by 2028. The most widespread category of LNG carrier is the Conventional ( 135,000 - 156,000 m3 LNG capacity) with an incidence of approximately 81% of the world fleet in 2020. Many producing countries that dominated the market through pipelines, such as Russia, are investing in infrastructure for the transport of LNG.

A very important aspect of logistics is also the storage capacity for both oil and natural gas. In Europe, Italy is the second country after Germany for natural gas storage capacity (17853 million m3).

In 2020, Italy imported 50.4 Mt of oil (- 20.2% compared to 2019) and was the fifth natural gas importer (63240 Mm3 equal to approximately 5.4% of world natural gas imports). All the countries of the European Union are natural gas importers with the sole exception of Norway.