Crude Oil Blending
Crude Oil Blending
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Crude Oil Blending
Pipeline economics
Quality Management
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1. Blending Heavy Crude for Pipeline logistics
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In-line blending for transportation
Heavy crude
Pipelin
e $$$$
AsThe
theefficiency
viscosity ofincreases,
moving crude
the flow
oil through the
thisOne
pipeline
pipeline
solution
decreases
is totally
is to acquire
dependent
and the
a light
pressure
on crude
some or of its
As theproperties
increases.
physical density
All increases
pipelines soDENSITY,
including does under
must operate the VISCOSITY
amount of horsepower
theanother
MaximumAND
acceptable required
Operating
POUR POINT to push
hydrocarbon
Pressure they the
that iscrude
are
through
designed for,the
so pipeline.which will cost
it may not be possible morereadily
to pump on an incremental
untreated
accessible pipeline
high viscosity
and tariff!
useproduct
an inlineat all.
blender to create a blend with a lower
Density, Viscosity and Pour Point.
Light crude or
other diluents
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In-line blending for transportation
Inline blender
One
The solution
problematic
is to physical
acquire aproperties
light crude
willor
another
now be acceptable
eradicated hydrocarbon
and the blendthat
willisbe
readily
easily pumped
accessibleto and
the reciever.
use an inline
blender to create a blend with a lower
Density, Viscosity and Pour Point.
Light crude or
other diluents
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2. Sharing a Common Pipeline
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Shared Pipeline blends
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3. Blending Crude Oil for Margin Optimization
(Quality Management)
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The B word.Blending high quality crude oil with low
quality crude oil in order to change the value of the product has
been around for decades.
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Historical and controversial dumb
bell crude blending
This
Thedidheavy
not fair
and well
light
with
product
refiners
and
yields
because
would ofbethisvery
thehigh
COQA but
and
theother
desirable
industry
middle
associations
distillate
pushed
yieldsfor
wouldmorebeparameters
very low. to
Fe beHence
analyzedthewhen
term Dumb
definingbell
the
V
Ni quality
crudeof crude oil.
Condensate
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Pipeline Specifications
Here you can see some Here you can see a typical sweet
Pipeline crude
typical resultssale specs
for a virgin crude pipeline spec taken from a
Test sweet crude that meets
Unitspec Min Max publicMedium
Virgin website. Along with the
Heavy LS
along with other domestic and Sweettraditional Gravity
Sour and Sulfur
Sour we Cond
foreign crudes that do not now have other specifications.
API: 34.0 41.0 36.1 25.0 29.0 45.0
meet spec.
Sulfur: %WtIf a marketer has the
0.400use of0.336
a blending0.400 1.90 0.05
Light Ends:(C2-C5 facility and has access to each of these
The light ends and residue specs20.0
total): %w/w 6.0 2.98 2.62 1.40
crudes they can blend them together shouldand still Dumb bell
eliminate
Sim Dis: (1020+): potentially4.0
%w/w meet all12.0
of the requirements of the total23.0
8.6 crudes and
2.9 metals spec 0.1
the pipeline and the refinery.1.7 (V, Ni & Fe)
0
will stop heavy
- -
MCRT: %Wt 2.0
metals from poisoning the
Metals: mg/kg 8.0 3.3 catalysts.
4.2There is also
75.0 an acid 5.0
number specification.
TAN: mg KOH/g 0.70 0.37 0.28 0.51 0.05
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Tank blending
MARS 6MB
Target blend for
EIC 28MB contract sale
SAH 38MB
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Tank blending
MARS 6MB
LS Cond 0.05% Sulfur EIC 28MB
$95
LS Cond 38MB
238MB
Sweet light Blend
0.29%200MB
Virgin Sweet
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Tank blending
MARS 6MB
LS Cond 0.05% Sulfur Med Sour 28MB
$95
266MB
238MB
Sweet Blend
Med Sour 1.00% Sulfur Sweet0.36%
light Blend
$90 0.29%
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Tank blending
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Tank Sampling If this shore tank was to scale
then this tiny, little dot would
..this
represent shows
1000how difficult
quarts of it can
be andThis
product. howmeans
importantthat itthe
is to
get good
analysis we representative
run is on a sample
1000 the size ofathis
samples
th from crude shore
dot..
tank
300,000 Barrel Shore Tank
300,000 x 42 = 12,600,000 Gallons
12,600,000 x 4 = 50,400,000 quarts
The samples would go back .
to our lab for testing. Based Here is a representation of a
on the results the lab would 300MB crude oil shore tank
produce a Report of Analysis that our inspector would
for the whole tank based on climb and take quart
that one quart sample. samples from each level
(U/M/L) along with running
averages.
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A lot of pipelines converge at this
area
Here is aMidwest.
in the map of the
At a little
crude
town oil Cushing,
called pipelines OK.
in Known
North
locally asAmerica.
the Pipeline
crossroads of the world. The
large crude oil terminal here has
been upgraded and expanded
(50M Bbls) recently for mass
storage and blending of crude oil.
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Intertek Crude Oil Laboratory,
Cushing, OK
Crude oil and fuel testing
Intertek has committed to opening a full
crude oil laboratory in Cushing, OK.
Capabilities include almost all ASTM
crude oil methods, including
GC light ends & HTSD
Metals by ICP, Nitrogen, Sulfur,
Gravity, RVP, Chlorides
and many, many more.
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Questions?
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