Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Light Sweet Crude vs Heavy Sour Crude

General discussions of the systemic, societal and civilisational effects of depletion.

Light Sweet Crude vs Heavy Sour Crude

Unread postby duke3522 » Fri 22 Apr 2005, 10:52:26

I am pretty new here and need a little help. Can someone please point me to some info that will inform me as to the difference between Light Sweet and Heavy Sour crude? My basic understanding is that the more sour the more sulfur. But I am also under the belief that sour crude contains less of the lighter distillates. Last night on CNBC they talked as though the difference is just a matter of removing the sulfur, and that the refineries that can handle sour crude are making a bundle due to the discount of the sour crude.

Please help enlighten a muddled mind. :?
User avatar
duke3522
Lignite
Lignite
 
Posts: 358
Joined: Sat 02 Apr 2005, 04:00:00
Location: Indiana

Unread postby RonMN » Fri 22 Apr 2005, 10:58:00

You're right...sweet has much less sulpher than sour crude...

The light & heavy is physically lighter or heavier...think of it as motor oil Vs. the tar on the road. now they couldn't actually pump road tar but as it gets heavier it's harder to pump out of the ground.

(that is my understanding...i am NOT an expert).
User avatar
RonMN
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2628
Joined: Fri 18 Mar 2005, 04:00:00
Location: Minnesota

Re: Light Sweet Crude vs Heavy Sour Crude

Unread postby FatherOfTwo » Fri 22 Apr 2005, 11:09:34

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('duke3522', 'I') am pretty new here and need a little help. Can someone please point me to some info that will inform me as to the difference between Light Sweet and Heavy Sour crude? My basic understanding is that the more sour the more sulfur. But I am also under the belief that sour crude contains less of the lighter distillates. Last night on CNBC they talked as though the difference is just a matter of removing the sulfur, and that the refineries that can handle sour crude are making a bundle due to the discount of the sour crude.

Please help enlighten a muddled mind. :?


The problem is that there is a serious lack of refining capacity for sour crudes. You can pump all the sour you want, if you can't refine it, it won't do anybody much good. This is why there is such a spread between light and sour crudes... not many can handle it.

So, all we need to do is build more sour crude refineries right? Well, ya, that will be necessary. But lets not lose sight of the most important fact.
Light sweet crude has peaked
User avatar
FatherOfTwo
Tar Sands
Tar Sands
 
Posts: 960
Joined: Thu 11 Nov 2004, 04:00:00
Location: Heart of Canada's Oil Country

Unread postby big_rc » Fri 22 Apr 2005, 11:10:33

There have been a number of threads adressing this topic. Do a quick search and you will find all of the info you want.
Simon's Law: Everything put together falls apart sooner or later.

I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains.--Anne Frank
User avatar
big_rc
Coal
Coal
 
Posts: 478
Joined: Sat 17 Jul 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Amerika (most of the time)


Return to Peak Oil Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron