Road Trip: Where Oregon Gets its Transportation Fuels

Oil and Gas Basins and Prospective Shale Development

With warmer months around the corner, we can expect more Oregonians will be packing up to hit the road this summer. Whether it’s planes, trains, or automobiles, travelers will need fuel to reach their destinations. Here in Oregon, we spend about $7.6 billion on transportation fuels each year, from gasoline and diesel to jet fuel and electricity. So where do those fuels come from?

In our 2020 Biennial Energy Report, we dive in to share how Oregon acquires its various transportation fuels. While interest is growing for alternative fuels, like electric vehicles, over 90 percent of our transportation fuels are still petroleum-based. In fact, gasoline represents over half of the state’s transportation fuel use.

The Pacific Northwest has no crude oil resources and is isolated from the nation’s major petroleum production regions, like Texas, North Dakota, and Alberta, Canada (see map at right). That means we import nearly all of our petroleum-based fuels – and as a result, send about $5.4 billion of our transportation dollars each year to other states and countries where extraction, processing, and refining occurs.

Crude oil and petroleum product movements are tracked across the U.S. through five geographically divided areas of the country called Petroleum Administration Defense Districts, or PADDs. The districts themselves were initially created in World War II to track and ration gasoline. Since 1950, the PADDs have been used to collect data and information to better assess and understand the supply and demand of the domestic petroleum business. Oregon is part of PADD 5, a region that includes the western states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Oil Transport by Rail and Vessel in North America

There are 22 operating petroleum refineries in PADD 5, five of which are located on the Puget Sound in Washington. These five refineries provide more than 90 percent of the refined petroleum products used in Oregon, which are delivered via the Olympic pipeline and barge to seven Portland-area terminals. These terminals receive, store, blend, and transfer petroleum products. Most of the remaining 10 percent is delivered by barge, and a very small amount by rail. Some of this product flows in a pipeline south to Eugene, and in another pipeline to the Portland International Airport. The Eugene distribution hub serves southern, central, and eastern Oregon. More than 240 towboats with tank barges carry refined petroleum products up the Columbia River to Pasco, Washington to service eastern communities in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

While the majority of Oregon’s transportation fuel is petroleum-based and imported, there are some fuels that are home grown, including electricity and some biofuels. Low-carbon transportation fuels such as renewable diesel and electricity show great promise of increasing market share, but progress is slowed while fleets are transitioned and infrastructure installed. While petroleum-based fuels will continue to play a major role in the transportation sector, gasoline and diesel fuel’s combined share of total transportation energy consumption in the U.S. is expected to decrease from 84 percent in 2019 to an estimated 74 percent in 2050.

Interested in learning more about transportation in Oregon? Check out these highlights in our 2020 Biennial Energy Report:

Energy in OregonJennifer KalezBiennial Energy Report, Transportation, Fuel Distribution, Biofuels, Alternative Fuel