alt Hacker NewsHow long ago was it that it was shipped in barrels? At some point it must have been, but the lore of oil history is not something I'm familiar with.
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ForOldHack • 04/25/2025
It's shipped in tanker trucks, rail cars and tankser ships, it's measured in millions of barrels.
Went down the Google rabbit hole, this article is the best summary I found (in 3 minutes of reading). Basically, wood barrels were first used as that’s just what existed from wine. It didn’t hold up so the iconic 55 gallon steel barrel was invented. The industry outgrew it and could save a lot on shipping/handling if they developed pipelines and tankers. Each of these transition took a few decades, but also pretty much follow the industrial advancements that occurred from the 1850s to the 1950s.
https://www.skolnik.com/blog/oils-long-history-with-the-55-g...