tanker

tanker, ship designed to carry liquid cargo in bulk within its cargo spaces, without the use of barrels or other containers. Most tankers carry either crude oil from oil fields to refineries or petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, or petrochemical feedstock from refineries to distribution centres. Some tankers with special food-grade holds, pumps, and other handling equipment can carry molasses, edible oil, and even wine in bulk. Specialized ships for transporting liquefied natural gas and fruit juices are often called tankers, though on these ships the cargo is actually carried in large refrigerated containers that fit into the hold.

Crude-oil and petroleum-product tankers vary in size from small coastal vessels about 60 metres (200 feet) long, carrying from 1,500 to 2,000 deadweight tons (dwt), up to huge vessels that reach lengths of more than 400 metres (1,300 feet), carry as much as 550,000 dwt, and are the largest ships afloat. (Deadweight is the total weight of cargo plus such necessary supplies as fuel, lubricating oil, crew, and the crew’s life support.) Between these two extremes are various size classes, though the exact specifications for each class vary among sources. Common tanker designations, in descending order by size, are:

1. Ultralarge crude carriers (ULCCs). The very largest ships, these have a length in the neighbourhood of 415 metres (1,350 feet) and a capacity of 320,000 to more than 550,000 dwt. They carry from two million to well more than three million barrels of crude.
2. Very large crude carriers (VLCCs). These ships, with a length of some 330 metres (1,100 feet), have capacities between 200,000 and 320,000 dwt. They carry in the area of two million barrels.
3. Suezmax. The largest ships that can transit the Suez Canal, these tankers are some 275 metres (900 feet) long and have a capacity of 120,000 to 200,000 dwt. They carry about 800,000 to more than 1,000,000 barrels.
4. Aframax. The maximum size of vessel to use the Average Freight Rate Assessment method for calculating shipping rates, these tankers are around 240 metres (790 feet) long and have capacities of 80,000 to 120,000 dwt. They carry roughly 500,000 to 800,000 barrels.
5. Panamax. The maximum size that can transit the Panama Canal, these tankers range in length between 200 and 250 metres (650 and 820 feet) and have capacities of 50,000 to 80,000 dwt. They carry 350,000 to 500,000 barrels.
6. Handymax, Handysize, Coastal, and other classes. These ships have capacities of less than 50,000 dwt and lengths up to approximately 200 metres (650 feet).

Tankers of 100,000 dwt and less can be crude-oil (“dirty”) carriers or product (“clean”) carriers. The Aframax tankers are often referred to as the “workhorses” of the world tanker fleet, as they carry large quantities of crude from many producing regions and are able to use most port facilities. The very largest tankers (the ULCCs and VLCCs and some of the Suezmax carriers) are commonly called “supertankers.” These are always crude-oil carriers, usually plying routes between large producing areas such as the Persian Gulf and major markets in Asia, Europe, or North America. The Suezmax tankers can reach their Atlantic destinations via the Suez Canal, whereas ULCCs and all but the lightest VLCCs must round the Cape of Good Hope.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

More From Britannica

ship: Tankers

Experience with supertankers has shown that the direct cost of transporting oil goes down as the size of the tanker increases, apparently without limit. However, an important obstacle to building the largest vessels is the lack of suitable shore facilities for them. For this reason only a handful of ULCCs have been built.

Beginning in the 1960s, great concerns about pollution were raised by a series of disastrous accidents involving supertankers, including the 1967 grounding of the Torrey Canyon off Cornwall, England, the 1978 breakup of the Amoco Cadiz off Britanny, France, and the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez off Alaska, U.S. The oil spills from these vessels caused great damage, and political reaction led to strict rules on the construction and operation of oil tankers. Most notably, in 1973 the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (known as MARPOL) was adopted by the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations to which some 170 countries belong. A series of amendments to MARPOL have worked toward establishing a worldwide tanker fleet in which all but the smallest ships have double hulls or some suitable equivalent. (In a double-hulled ship, the sides and bottom consist of two layers separated by a space sufficient to reduce the chance that an incident breaching one layer will breach the other.) After 1996 all new tankers were delivered with double hulls or some alternative, and by 2026, according to the terms of the MARPOL amendments, all but the smallest single-hulled tankers are to have been rebuilt to a double configuration or are to be retired.

The propulsion machinery, navigation deck, crew quarters, and cargo pumps of a tanker are located in the stern. The cargo space occupies almost all the rest of the ship’s length, along with ballast or fuel tanks. Diesel engines for the largest tankers can weigh more than 2,000 tons, stand as tall as a three-story building, and deliver more than 100,000 horsepower.