A visual exploration of energy shipping routes around the world.
90% of all goods worldwide are moved by ship, but shipping is mostly invisible.
More than 300 million Metric Tons of energy are shipped in and out of the United States each year, in 60,000 shipments.
This map represents the ports and paths of the 2.7 billion Metric Tons of energy shipped through more than 90 US ports from 2002 – 2012.
These are the 200 most common energy shipping paths to and from the US.
Every port has a story. 460 million Metric Tons of oil is moved through Houston alone, connecting Houston to more than 600 ports worldwide. These shipments include the following products:
Crude Petroleum, Refined Petroleum, residual Fuel Oil, Natural Gas and Liquid Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane, other Gas Mixtures (Derived from Petroleum), Gases (NOS), Gasoline, Jet Fuel (Naphtha and Kerosene), Motor Fuel (NOS), Kerosene, Naphtha, Medicinal Mineral Oil, Lubricating Oils, Lubricating Grease, Liquid Petroleum Mixtures, Non Liquid Petroleum (Petrolatum), Petroleum Additives.
Using data assembled by Thomson Reuters, Port to Port maps global oil shipping routes as well as other forms of energy navigating ocean territories to and from the United States.
Using D3 as an interactive web platform we designed a map interface that is scaled globally while embedded with local stories about energy movement from port to port. Data can be viewed across time, which reveal changes in patterns of movement as the geopolitics, price of oil, and conditions at specific ports change.
