Alternative Solution #1

 

      The solution above is designed to work like an ice cube tray. With an old-fashioned ice cube tray, water going into one of the compartments flows into the rest of the compartments, filling each one of them up. In this design, the oil-like substance flows into the tanks through a hole located in the top right compartment. The compartment fills up and then flows to the tanks that are next to it. When these are filled the oil-like substance flows to the tanks next to those and so on until all of the tanks are full. 

     This design isn't too complicated and would be very simple to build. If I were to use this design in my final product I would definitely use wood that was water-proofed and I would use hot glue or caulk to seal and secure it.

     Even though this design is used on a daily basis in ice cube trays, I don't think it would be beneficial to use it in an oil tanker design. I believe that the only problem with this design is that there is a possibility that the oil-like substance will spill out of the tanker if the tanker moved.

**Note: No dimensions were included in the pictures because the size of the tanker was not yet determined st this point.**