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http://www.houmatoday.com/news/20171216/top-oil-buyers-seek-chemistry-in-love-affair-with-us-crude
By Serene Cheong Bloomberg
Posted Dec 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM
Updated Dec 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM
"...The flow of U.S. oil to Asia is here to stay, but Asian importers are learning that not all grades are equally desirable,” says Tushar Tarun Bansal, a consultant from McKinsey Energy Insights. “Buyers are wary of grades such as Eagle Ford and can’t take much more of it.”
Three Asian refiners that purchased and refined Eagle Ford shale oil don’t plan to buy significant volumes of the grade due to concerns over the consistency of its quality, according to a Bloomberg survey of officials at the companies. Two of the three respondents said their cargoes -- each between 500,000 and 1 million barrels in size -- yielded more light distillates such as liquid petroleum gas and naphtha than they expected.
Companies typically select a mix of different crudes to process, choosing grades based on chemical characteristics that will yield higher volumes of the fuels that are most in demand. When the oil specifications are inconsistent, plants may pump out less of the products that the refiners want and more of what they don’t require at the time.
According to the refiners and two sellers of U.S. crude to Asia, the variance in characteristics is acute for grades such as Eagle Ford and Domestic Sweet Crude -- an aggregate of oil from numerous streams that’s blended in tanks such as those in the storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma.
“Unlike Middle Eastern or West African crudes, which originate from one single large and stable reservoir, shale crudes are often extracted from multiple layers and can originate from different parts of a basin which have varying geological characteristics,” said Virendra Chauhan, an analyst at industry consultant Energy Aspects..."
By Serene Cheong Bloomberg
Posted Dec 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM
Updated Dec 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM
"...The flow of U.S. oil to Asia is here to stay, but Asian importers are learning that not all grades are equally desirable,” says Tushar Tarun Bansal, a consultant from McKinsey Energy Insights. “Buyers are wary of grades such as Eagle Ford and can’t take much more of it.”
Three Asian refiners that purchased and refined Eagle Ford shale oil don’t plan to buy significant volumes of the grade due to concerns over the consistency of its quality, according to a Bloomberg survey of officials at the companies. Two of the three respondents said their cargoes -- each between 500,000 and 1 million barrels in size -- yielded more light distillates such as liquid petroleum gas and naphtha than they expected.
Companies typically select a mix of different crudes to process, choosing grades based on chemical characteristics that will yield higher volumes of the fuels that are most in demand. When the oil specifications are inconsistent, plants may pump out less of the products that the refiners want and more of what they don’t require at the time.
According to the refiners and two sellers of U.S. crude to Asia, the variance in characteristics is acute for grades such as Eagle Ford and Domestic Sweet Crude -- an aggregate of oil from numerous streams that’s blended in tanks such as those in the storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma.
“Unlike Middle Eastern or West African crudes, which originate from one single large and stable reservoir, shale crudes are often extracted from multiple layers and can originate from different parts of a basin which have varying geological characteristics,” said Virendra Chauhan, an analyst at industry consultant Energy Aspects..."
