The Oil Drum

A couple of weeks ago I pointed out that the crude oil that comes out of the ground is not made up of a single hydrocarbon, but rather is a mix of different hydrocarbons that have to be separated. And oils from different parts of the world are formed as different combinations of these. Today I would like to go a little further and talk about distillation curves, and because the world supply is changing to heavier crudes then go on to explain a little bit about cracking.

For those new to the site this is where, on weekends, I often post a small technical talk, explaining some of the aspects of the fossil fuel business, so as to help understanding of some of the topics on the site. There are now two main topic themes developed, those relating to oil, and those to coal. Since this talk relates to oil, at the end I will post the list of topics that relate. It is a very simple explanation, because of space, and those who wish to ask or expound a bit more are invited to do so through the comments.