Sour crude increase hitting U. S. refineries

Journal Article · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978 · Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5405978

According to a study of the Office of Oil and Gas of the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. and Caribbean refineries must increase their capability for upgrading lower quality crude oils by about three times the rate of the past five years (1973-1977). The projections are based on the fact that the U.S. is rapidly depleting its reserves of ''sweet'' crude and will have to depend more and more on ''sour'' crude. The report estimates current supplies of sour crude in the OPEC nations 5.5 times those of sweet crude. Much of this oil is being imported by the U.S. from the OPEC nations although 70% of the U.S. refineries were originally equipped to refine sweet crude. High-sulfur crude will involve desulfurization processes and other techniques requiring increased investments in equipment. About 15% of OPEC crude oil reserves are sweet; in the U.S., sweet crude reserves have dropped to 42% of the total.

• OSTI ID: 5405978
• Journal Information: Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States), Journal Name: Hydrocarbon Process.; (United States) Vol. 57:5; ISSN HYPRA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020700* -- Petroleum-- Economics
Industrial
& Business Aspects
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
292000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Supply
Demand & Forecasting
CENTRAL AMERICA
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
DESULFURIZATION
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
IMPORTS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ISLANDS
LATIN AMERICA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OIL-EXPORTING COUNTRIES
OPEC
PETROLEUM
PROCESSING
REFINING
RESERVES
RESOURCES
SOUR CRUDES
SULFUR CONTENT
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
WEST INDIES