[Dan1195]

This simply tells us that the peak is close at hand. Just another piece of evidence which suggests peak most likely in 2-3 years at most.

[JudoCow09]

There was an article a while back on the home page about OPEC increasing production. The numbers were like 45% LightnSweet, 42% Medium, and only about I think 3% Heavy. It sounds as though either they don't care too much about Heavy, or they don't have much left. Please comment.

[BitterSweetCrude]

This is very interesting to see the numbers, and that light oils are become increasingly scarce. I found it interesting that OPEC's oil is mostly sour.

[wilburke]

Question: where can I find a good, detailed source describing the difference, both in financial and energy costs, of refining sweet vs heavy crude?

I've seen some charts with accompying simplistic descriptions, but I've yet to find this topic fully dissected. This would seem to be yet another crucial topic for us to consider in depth.

[clv101]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wilburke', 'Q')uestion: where can I find a good, detailed source describing the difference, both in financial and energy costs, of refining sweet vs heavy crude?

I've seen some charts with accompying simplistic descriptions, but I've yet to find this topic fully dissected. This would seem to be yet another crucial topic for us to consider in depth.

[spudbuddy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sparaxis', '
')
Second, heavy crude contains more energy than light crudes per unit volume, not the other way around. The problem is that we don't demand crude directly: we demand the products made from crude. Since we have strict requirements on the quality of the final products, we have to expend a lot more energy to process sour heavy crudes into final products, so in the end the net energy availability is lower, not gross energy availability.

[wilburke]

Thanks for the info, clv101. I had a feeling that I'd end up digging into some pretty esoteric stuff, but I think that the details of heavy oil refining are important. So far as I can already determine, there will be far greater costs per barrel to squeeze out the fuel, greater environmental damage, and probably more expensive so-called "by-products" like plastic and asphalt. Not a pretty picture, and this is the future of oil refining.

[clv101]

Here's an excellent article on the subject: Sweet and Sour.
Contains some graphs from the EIA about the spread between light sweet and heavy sour.

[wilburke]

Thanks again, clv101. Terrific article. Excellent blog as well, BTW.

[kwftide]

This is an excellent discussion!

But it leads to the following question:

If light, sweet crude has indeed peaked and we are going to become heavily dependent on heavy, sour (or some other combo), how do we know how much of that remains.

Let me ask another way:

From past oil fields, can we determine the "usual" proportion of light, sweet to heavy, crude. If we have this data, then we could safely deduce how much conventional but albeit sulfur-laden / gooey oil we have left.

I visualize a big pool with light, sweet floating at the top and the heavy, nasty stuff on the bottom. Is this in any way accurate?

[LadyRuby]

I remember seeing somewhere (maybe on this site) that a barrel of light sweet crude produces x amount of gasoline, while a barrel of heavy sour crude produces y amount (less than x) of gasoline. And this is one reason the U.S. uses more light sweet crude since we need more gasoline from our crude than most other countries. -- anyone know where I can find this chart again?

But my actual question is, does anyone know about heating oil and light sweet versus heavy sour crude? Is heavy sour crude a better crude for heating oil (versus gasoline)?

[Fuzzy_McDermit]

One of our local papers just ran a story about the refinery in my province, how it was actually designed in the 60's with sour crude in mind. It has also just undergone a 6 million dollar upgrade to it gasoline processing unit, so that it now produce gas with some of the lowest sulfur content in the world. And a 21 million dollar diesel upgrade to make it virtually sulfur free is underway as well . They also reclaim all the sulfur and sell it to fertilizer and pharmaceutical companies.

They realized that sour will make up a larger and larger portion of the oil in the world. Currently our province is producing a lot of sweet crude and all that appears to be going to the U.S. The article states that plants have to either upgrade or close in the future as sour will become the primary oil type in the future.

[Sparaxis]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('LadyRuby', 'I') remember seeing somewhere (maybe on this site) that a barrel of light sweet crude produces x amount of gasoline, while a barrel of heavy sour crude produces y amount (less than x) of gasoline. And this is one reason the U.S. uses more light sweet crude since we need more gasoline from our crude than most other countries. -- anyone know where I can find this chart again?

But my actual question is, does anyone know about heating oil and light sweet versus heavy sour crude? Is heavy sour crude a better crude for heating oil (versus gasoline)?

[kwftide]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sparaxis', '
')Since the US demand slate is heavily weighted to gasoline, and we have strict sulfur limits in the final product, yes, there is a preference in the US to run light sweet crudes.

[Sparaxis]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kwftide', '
')So, does that mean we are going to see sky high gas prices in the near future? Assuming we 1. don't build new refineries or upgrade existing refineries 2. don't raise the sulfur level standard for our gasoline, then it seems we will be continually dependent on light.sweet crude for our gas / diesel.

Another option exists I suppose: buy gas / diesel from a refinery that exists outside the US and has invested in "heavy" processing equipment.