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88 comments on Perhaps we need an open thread?

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Sunlight on February 27, 2006 - 11:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
HO: in your Iran comment it said that exports were cut 260,000 b/d for the month in order to "build stocks in order to blend different crudes so as to make a more marketable grade." This one makes no sense to me. Seems like they could blend the grades as a matter of course before shipping them out. Do you have a clue as to what is going on here??
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Heading Out on February 28, 2006 - 12:19am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well they are coming from different fields, that may be producing at different rates, so they may be just filling the stock tanks while they wait for enough from the slow producer to blend into the tankers, or the pipelines, but that is just a guess.
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Gets IT on February 28, 2006 - 1:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I would suspect that they have an overstock of relatively heavy oil that is not suitable by itself for the usual refineries they ship to, so they can't ship it alone.  When they are not receiving lighter oils from certain fields to blend the light with the heavy, due to pipeline shutdowns or terrorist damage, whatever reason, they must wait until that light stream resumes before they can continue blending it with the heavy and resume shipments of the blend to the usual refineries.  This is a guess. I would have to know the API gravities of the streams, before I could really confirm that.
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IntoTheBlack on February 28, 2006 - 6:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
As oil supplies are tightening everywhere, does this mean that an additional part of "standard logistics" will become waiting on (decreasingly available)lighter crude to mix in with heavier crude for refining (so, higher stocks in general)? Or sending heavier crude longer distances to specialist heavy crude refineries?
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Gets IT on March 1, 2006 - 4:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Actually it is already standard practice. Yes, it must increase as heavier supplies are substituted for any present lighter feedstocks.  Refineries with only light processing capability must be modified, or new refineries capable of working with heavier feed blends must be built.

I designed 2 adjacent pipelines in Venezuela.  One from a marine terminal for light oil, delivered from the good quality Mesa fields, and take it 140 km inland to the heavy oil Zuata Field.  The light was blended with the heavy (APIº9.6   bitumin) at the production facilities in Zuata.   It was then heated to min 175ºF to decrease the blends viscosity to levels capable of being pumped via another pipeline back to the marine terminal.  This process was changed later to use naphtha in place of the Mesa crude.  An adjacent separating plant was started up to separate the naphtha and recycle it back to the Zuata field, where it is blended again.

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88 comments on Perhaps we need an open thread?

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