Pipelines - Welcome to the Underground

Energy pipelines – oil, natural gas, gasoline, and many chemicals as well – are part of the subterranean world, along with water lines, sewer lines, storm sewers, telephone lines, television cables, and many electric lines. All these underground utilities provide services that most of us who are no longer interested in living in caves would not want to do without.

Natural resources like crude oil and natural gas, which are the raw material for energy the the world consumes, are found in vastly different locations than where they are processed or refined into fuels for our lives, and are in different locations from where they are consumed. While many forms of transportation are used to move this product to marketplaces, pipelines remain the safest, most efficient and economical way to move this natural resource.

The United States has the largest network of energy pipelines – both oil and natural gas -- of any nation in the world. The oil pipeline network alone in the U.S. is more than 10 times larger than that in Europe.

This chapter of the web-site is dedicated to providing you with more information about the energy pipelines in the U.S. To learn more about the pipeline industry and the role it plays in the nation's energy supply, we invite you to explore this chapter. More comprehensive information is also available throughout the website in the chapters dedicated to the different facets of the pipeline industry.