Overview

This Shell Film from 1953, "Oil The Invisible Traveler" looks at how petroleum is brought from producing regions to the market. It starts with the challenges of oil transportation, notably that it is a lot harder to transport a liquid. This is followed by a short history of oil transportation including barrels, carts, and floats, and how these eventually evolved into tanker cars on trains, tanker trucks, ocean tankers, and pipelines. Then the US pipeline system is explained as well as how oil is transported in an example case from Texas to New York. It ends with all the benefits that oil products bring to daily life.