Crude oil on the lakes

[wlbblw]

At that time there were 4 different petroleum product docks in Buffalo & Tonawanda, United/Ashland Tonawanda, R.B. Neuman Tonawanda (now Noco), & Mobil Oil (now the Buckeye Product Terminal on the Buffalo River). Mobil & Ashland both had a refinery. I assumed they got their crude by boat.

In my day since the late 80's the former refineries have both closed, but Noco & Mobil have sporadicly gotten other products by boat like gas, xelene, & asphalt. The gas used to come from a refinery in Nanticoke and asphalt out of Marathon in Detroit.

[mccollochd]

I believe most of the refined petroleum products were moved from the refinery via pipeline and/or tank truck. In the late 1960s I was on a couple of the smaller Cliffs' boats and we took ore and/or pellets to the Wickwire steel mill at North Tonowanda. I remember seeing small tankers and barges along the Black Rock Canal, so there must have been a loading dock somewhere there. North Tonowanda was a great trip ... it took 24+ hours to unload via a single bridge crane, security/passage throught the steel mill was pretty easy and we all had a chance to go up-the-street.

[ray]

in sarnia area, imperial oil,sunoco, shell refinery

[wlbblw]

Ok, where did they load refined products then?

[mccollochd]

I think that the Buffalo area refineries all received crude oil via pipeline.

Look at: http://www.pipeline101.com/overview/crude-pl.html

My recollection is that not much crude oil was ever shipped on the Great Lakes, virtually all the tankers were for refined pertoleum products.

[wlbblw]

Where did the crude oil come from that would have been shipped by boat to Ashland/United in Tonawanda, & Mobil in Buffalo back when the refineries were running?