Why all the different reference names for crude oil?

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I hear on my daily stock report of "sweet" "sour" and WTI light sweet. I also hear crude described based on it's origins. Like Saharan Blend (Algeria) Alaskan Sweet, Illinois Sweet.

There are also five types of crude oil are produced from Saudi oil fields. So instead of just going by API gravity, does the crude have special formulas that they need to be named after a place? Or is it for purposes of pricing it in the market?

Why do I need to know that the oil incoming in my pipeline is "Brent"? Why isn't it just priced by the api gravity and that only?
 
I think they're all based off of the reference types, and all have their own properties that make them suitable or difficult to refine. West Texas Intermediate is probably the big reference in the US, but North Sea Brent may be the reference in Europe.

 
Crude oil is very different depending on which field it comes from. Some are easier to refine and have a different amounts of the various petroleum chemicals which will make one more valuable then others. For example, western Canada select will usually require more condensate to refine than WTI which means the price will be less.

“Sour” has hydrogen sulphide which is poisonous so it will be more expensive than “sweet” which does not.

Location also is a factor just from a logistics perspective.
 
The U.S. refineries are mainly designed and set up to refine W.T.I. "West Texas Intermediate" and Canadian oil. Brent is all shipped to Europe, and their refineries are set up to refine the lighter Sweet Brent crude oil.

Brent supposedly has a little less refining process to go through to refine all the different chemicals from the base crude oil to finish the end results of gasoline, diesel, and other by products.
 
“Sour” crude oil has more sulfur in it which must be removed, thus costs more to be refined than “Sweet” crude oil. The name basically just says where it came from,
 
Bonny Light is another oil that’s desirable for fuel production … (W. Africa)
At one time a fair amount came to the US … more to China these days …
 
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Sweet and sour crude refers to the amount of H2S in the oil. High H2S oils, called sour, are much harder to transport or refine. H2S is one of the most poisonous gasses on the planet.

I had to take an H2S Alive course when working in the patch as there were many sour wells where I was working. Basically, anything over 1000 PPM in the air, first breath you are unconscious, next breath you are dead. It smells like rotten eggs, but what makes it especially dangerous is that at even moderate levels, it kills your sense of smell first, so you will no longer notice it. Common practice to pour bleach down a well when working on it. Theory is, as long as you can still smell the bleach, you were “safe”.

Light or heavy refers to the amount of paraffins in the oil. A really heavy oil will almost be a solid at room temps. That presents its own challenges in transport, etc.
 
The U.S. refineries are mainly designed and set up to refine W.T.I. "West Texas Intermediate" and Canadian oil. Brent is all shipped to Europe, and their refineries are set up to refine the lighter Sweet Brent crude oil.

Brent supposedly has a little less refining process to go through to refine all the different chemicals from the base crude oil to finish the end results of gasoline, diesel, and other by products.

I hear that many refineries in the US were geared toward refining Venezuelan crude, but that’s a little hard to come by now with the implosion of their oil industry. The neat trick is that Canadian tar sand crude is a reasonable facsimile, but it has to be cut with very light North Dakota crude to transport it. I don’t believe that light crude is taxed the way it’s used. They actually refine out the light parts from the mixture, transport it back to Canada, and use it again.

But light sweet crude is more or less fungible. Refineries don’t receive exactly the same crude every shipment.
 
I hear that many refineries in the US were geared toward refining Venezuelan crude, but that’s a little hard to come by now with the implosion of their oil industry. The neat trick is that Canadian tar sand crude is a reasonable facsimile, but it has to be cut with very light North Dakota crude to transport it. I don’t believe that light crude is taxed the way it’s used. They actually refine out the light parts from the mixture, transport it back to Canada, and use it again.

But light sweet crude is more or less fungible. Refineries don’t receive exactly the same crude every shipment.
Some used to spike it with condensate - but China making off the market direct deals with country “leaders” has redirected lots of crude.
 
Some used to spike it with condensate - but China making off the market direct deals with country “leaders” has redirected lots of crude.

I don't think there’s specific access to the condensate from Bakken crude. But certainly it’s being used to help ship Canadian tar sands crude to Gulf Coast and British Columbia ports for export.
 
I don't think there’s specific access to the condensate from Bakken crude. But certainly it’s being used to help ship Canadian tar sands crude to Gulf Coast and British Columbia ports for export.
It used to come from Nigeria - was not under the same arrangement due to APIG …
 
It used to come from Nigeria - was not under the same arrangement due to APIG …

Thinking of the Canadian tar sands, I guess they call it "dilbit". Some of this stuff is apparently cheaper than normal light crude since it's not necessarily suitable for making gasoline.

Because condensate is heavier than natural gasoline a greater volume of condensate is required to blend dilbit to pipeline specification. Condensates are less attractive than natural gasoline to refiners since their quality can be variable whereas natural gasoline has long been a traditional part of the gasoline blending pool. Being “attractive” to refiners is important because whatever diluent is used to make dilbit crude ends up in refineries and if it is not useful then its value will be discounted. Canadian producers can also use very light crudes as diluent (e.g. synthetic crude or Bakken light sweet) but these are heavier than C5 or condensate and require larger blend volumes. A much lighter alternative diluent is butane (API range 75 – 115) but that has a very high Reid Vapor Pressure that exceeds crude pipeline specifications (see Wasted Away in Butane Blendingville) so very little can be added to dilbit.​
 
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