[exDemMom]

I suppose it is infinitely safer and better for the environment to put the oil on ships, where a catastrophic failure only dumps the oil in the ocean.

< /sarc >

[woodbutcher1963]

Actually, if they could load the oil on a barge and ship it to the refinery it would be a lot cheaper to transport and unload at the refinery. Consider this, the boat pulls up to a dock at the refinery, they hook up the pipe and pump it out. Next scenario is the 100 car tanker train pulls up to the refinery. Each tanker has to be hooked up and pumped out individually. That is 100 different hook ups and disconnects. Now, it may be more automated than that, but I have to imagine that there it much more labor involved in loading and unloading 100 tanker cars than there is 1 barge or supertanker. However, last I checked there were not to many rivers in North Dakota, Saskatchewan or Montana that a large tanker ship could transit. I do not believe that they can go that far up the Missouri.