This is a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier).

This tanker crossed our bow the other day when we were anchored.

Just for perspective she was approximately 0.4 nautical miles away. You can see just to the left of our forward mast the pilot boat alongside for a size comparison. This ship is twice the length of the vessel I'm on. She is 332 meters (1088ft) compared to our 182.5 meters (600ft)!

What also makes her very different is that she only carries crude oil. I spoke with her officers and they were going to load 900,000 barrels of crude. That is 37.8 million gallons (0r roughly 151.2 liters) of crude oil! Considering that you can refine more than 1 barrel of product from 1 barrel of crude oil we are talking about A LOT.

This vessel was able to take a full load in just over 24 hours! We will potentially have a 15 hour longer cargo evolution!

When I think about how many vessels this size are transiting the worlds oceans and how much product is really being moved it really puts things in perspective. I personally drive an SUV....I think I have a 15 gal tank....but if you assume I have a 20 gal tank I'd have to fill up my 4Runner 1.89 million times to use 37.8 million gallons of gasoline!!! If I fill up my tank more than once a week (5 times a month) every year for 80 years I'd use 4800 gallons. 393.75 SUVs could fill up for 80 years with this tankers load!