User:Prhpco/Opportunity Crudes

Opportunity Crudes

Opportunity Crudes are referred to a collection of low-quality, relatively inexpensive crudes (such as Arab Heavy, Mexican's Maya), oilsands bitumen (sold as West Canadian Select, dil-bit or syn-bit) from Canada, extra heavy oil from Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, high acid crudes (or called high TAN crudes, TAN stands for Total Acid Number), and oil shale. These types of crudes are difficult to process because of high contents of metals, sulfur, asphaltenes and other refractory carbon compounds. They are sold at US$5-30/b discount to benchmark light, sweet crudes like Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI). The processing of opportunity crudes has historically been viewed as an attractive option for well-equipped refineries to remain competitive in times of high crude prices.

In addition to the common processing challenges with opportunity crudes such as corrosion and fouling problems, the recent push towards greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions reductions has generated another area of concern for these crudes—carbon dioxide intensity (CO2 emitted per barrel of crude). Regulations on product quality and GHG emissions have continued to tighten around the world, further constraining refinery operations and increasing the difficulty of processing heavy, dirty crudes.

Opportunity crudes, as often defined by the petroleum industry, may have various combinations of high contents of sulfur (>0.7-1.0%), nitrogen, and aromatics; low API gravity (<26-28°); an elevated amount of vacuum distillation tower bottoms; and high viscosity; and high acidity (with TAN exceeding 0.5 or 1.0 mg KOH/g, depending on the definition used).