Table of Contents
What is a crack spread in oil?
The crack spread — the theoretical refining margin — is executed by selling the refined products futures (i.e., gasoline or diesel) and buying crude oil futures, thereby locking in the differential between the refined products and crude oil.
What is the difference between oil and condensate?
Condensate is a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons, similar to a very light (high API) crude oil. Condensate is typically valued lower than crude oil because of its high light ends content, which yields a lot of lower value LPGs and light naphtha and makes it difficult to process in high volumes in a refinery.
What is pretreatment of crude oil?
Crude oil pretreatment is a large factor in obtain- ing higher levels of economic efficiency in petroleum refining processes and in petrochemical production. As is well known, chloride salts get into crude oil during the production process, as a part of the emulsified brine water from the reservoir.
What are contaminants in crude oil?
From first production to the refinery, crude oil is being contaminated. Many contaminants are naturally occurring, such as rock fragments, naphthenic acid, and salt water. Production fluids, H2S scavengers, and corrosion inhibitors, while necessary in the upstream and midstream, can be troublesome for refiners.
What are current crack spreads?
Crack spreads, which represent the price difference between products and crude oil, can be used to determine the relative value of various petroleum products for refineries to produce. Crack spreads vary by product and can rise or fall depending on the time of year and on market conditions.
What do they use condensate for?
Uses. Condensates are used as refinery feedstocks for the manufacture of products such as petrol (gasoline), jet fuel, diesel and heating fuels. Some condensates, particularly those with a high paraffin content, are used for the manufacture of ethylene.
What is shale condensate?
Condensate is an ultra-light liquid hydrocarbon produced along with natural gas from some shale wells. It is not as valuable as oil, but prices for the two commodities tend to rise and fall together. The condensate is mostly used in making gasoline.
Why Pretreatment of crude oil is necessary?
As a first step in the refining process, to reduce corrosion, plugging, and fouling of equipment and to prevent poisoning the catalysts in processing units, these contaminants must be removed by desalting (dehydration).
Why is crude oil pretreatment needed?
Pretreatment of the crude oil is important if the crude oil is to be transported effectively and to be processed without causing fouling and corrosion in the subsequent operation starting from distillation, catalytic reforming and secondary conversion processes.
How do you remove oil contaminants?
There are two common ways to remove water from lube oil- one is by coalescing the water. Coalescence is the method of joining water droplets together to form an increasingly sized pool of water which can then be removed from the oil in order for it to be purified and re-used successfully.