WTF is "light, sweet crude"? .........

[marmar]

.... as is used to describe a type of oil in any story about oil trading? :wtf:
Did someone taste the oil? "Yum. It's light and sweet.":) ..... Is that what's wrong with Cheney? He's had one too many "light, sweet crudes" with no chaser?!?
:silly:

[Breeze54]

1. Jenna Bush

?

[Canuckistanian]

2. I've always wondered that meself

And what's the opposite? Heavy, sour and refined?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Petroleum Porn? n/t

[panader0]

4. It's a technique I learned in Paris in '69

[Luminous Animal]

5. It's the name of my husband's band. (n/t)

[Fovea]

6. Light Sweet

Light means less paraffin which is easier to pump and crack, as well as higher yield in volatiles.

Sweet means low sulfur, a big plus when refining.

[marmar]

8. Thanks for the explanation.....

.... Business writers drop the term as if everyone who reads their stories knows what they're talking about.

[Fovea]

18. We sucked up the Lightest and Sweetest first

and a lot of what is available is harder to refine.
In fact, I think our domestic high sulfur refining
ability is really low.

Sulfur makes really strong molecular bonds
(it is the bang in gunpowder) and getting it
out is energy intensive, and as you might expect, requires additional cost to remove.

But not getting it out is worse, as we already learned with coal in the nineteenth century. Since we make clean coal clean with water, it is not very clean, actually.


On the other end of the scale is the big pool of Alberta Tar Sands.
It has a lower return on energy invested (ROEI) and nasties up a lot of fresh water in the process.

[WillowTree]

12. And the less sulfer in the end product...

....the cleaner it burns.

And there's less loss in the refining process when the crude is low in sulfer to begin with.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Low sulfur oil. nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. the easy to refine stuff that floats on top of an oil field.

Crude oils with low carbon, high hydrogen, and high API gravity are usually rich in paraffin and tend to yield greater proportions of gasoline and light petroleum products; those with high carbon, low hydrogen, and low API gravities are usually rich in aromatics.
Oil refineries are designed to refine specific types of crude oils. A refinery designed to refine light sweet crude would not be able to efficiently refine a heavy crude, if at all. The heavy crude does not require as severe processing as do the light crude.

Sweet and sour crude are so defined based on the percentage of sulphur contained in the crude. The breaking point between sweet and sour crude is not well defined, but generally less than 2 weight percent is considered to be sweet, while greater than 2 weight percent is considered to be sour. The majority of the sulphur in the crude remains in the highest boiling point fraction or the bottom residuum, the asphalt. Since light sweet crude might yield only 15% asphalt, and heavy sour crude might yield 50% asphalt, the asphalt from the light sweet crude may actually contain a larger percentage of sulphur.

Heavy and light crude are so defined based on the API gravity or specific gravity of the crude. The API gravity and specific gravity are related by the following equation, S.G.=(141.5)/(131.5+API) where the higher the API, the lower the S.G. High API gravities are indicative of light crude, while low API gravities are indicative of heavy crude. The breaking point between heavy and light crude is not well defined, but generally API gravity less than 25 is considered to be heavy, while API gravity greater than 25 is considered to be light.
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=193702&page=4

[Bluebear]

10. They make it sound like a Mrs. Butterworth flavor. nt

[Ilsa]

11. There is also brent crude (North Sea). The reference means less

refining is required to remove sulfur and turn the junk into gasoline. West Texas Intermediate is a little higher quality and would require a higher price than Saudi light sweet crude.

I used to work in banking, and a long time ago I understood alot more about drilling, production, and refining.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. After taking a swim in a pool of human waste matter and rotting corpses

Dick Cheney then goes to the shower room in his bunker and washes off in a shower of light sweet crude. He then licks off the sweet residue on his body with gusto.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Um...wait...okay...no...

[CoffeeCat]

14. When Scarlett O'Hara talks dirty?

Just a guess.

[HughMoran]

15. It's tasty

mmmmmm :think:

[scarletwoman]

16. Me, in my youth? (nt)

[pepperbear]

19. yoplait's new yogurt flavor. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

20. I always thought it was one of the choices ...

... at Starbucks.

[Trailrider1951]

21. Hehehe, yeah it sounds funny, but it means this:

Light = api gravity, think kerosene (light) verses asphalt (heavy)
Sweet = no H2S or sulfur (sour)
Crude = unrefined
If the crude is light and sweet, it is cheaper to refine into gasoline and other products, and therefore more valuable. Light sweet is the standard.