An oil tanker, also known as an oil tanker, is an oil or products thereof of a bulk transport zone designed for the ship. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude oil tankers and product tankers. [1] Crude oil tankers transport large volumes of unrefined crude oil from the extraction point to the refineries. [1] For example, transporting crude oil from oil wells in a producing country to refineries in another country. Product tankers, which are generally much smaller, are designed to transport refined products from refineries to markets that consume them. For example, to move gasoline from refineries in Europe to consumer markets in Nigeria and other West African countries.

Oil tankers are generally classified according to their size and profession. Size classes range from inland or coastal tankers with a deadweight of several thousand metric tons (DWT) to massive ultra-large crude oil vessels (ULCCs) of 550,000 DWT. Tankers transport about 2.0 billion metric tons (2.2 billion short tons) of oil each year. [2] [3] Second of only pipelines in terms of efficiency, [3] the average cost of shipping crude oil by tanker is only $ 5 to $ 8 per cubic meter (0.02 to $ 0.03 per US gallon).