ziaulislam
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Hi,
Please read the following quoted post and post by @niaz sb, it is referring to. Should be able to clarify technical aspects.
I have never personally run Urals in a refinery but it does not appear to be too different from some of the Arab Gulf crudes: Urals is 30.6 API & 1.48 % Sulphur. Arab Medium is 31 API & 2.55 Sulphur, Iran Heavy is 30.7 API & 1.80 Sulphur
I am familiar with the PRL which was designed to run on Agha Jhari (now called Iran Light) which is 33 to 33.5 API and about 1.5% Sulphur. It yields on volume about 18% light ends (up to 150 C) about 35% middle distillate and (150 – 350 C fraction) and about 44% residue. Rest being the refining loss.
Understand Urals yields only about 14 light-ends, 34% middle distillates and about 45% residue. Hence refinery runs have to be adjusted and the Urals needs to be blended with the lighter crudes for optimum distillation. It is also correct that it is not advisable to blend parafinic crudes with napthenic crudes but most Indian refineries are also designed on Arab Light & Iran Light crudes but India is currently one the largest buyers of Urals.
Besides most refineries can be tweaked to run lighter or heavier crudes than their base load feed and at $40 dollars per barrel below Brent, any modification is well worth the effort.
For Indian appetite kindly refer to:
“India emerged as the largest buyer of Russian Urals crude in April enticed by hefty discounts, as several of the grade's regular European customers have boycotted this oil following Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Pakistan has been toying with the idea of buying Urals for quite a while.
In a bid to diversify, Pakistan plans oil imports from Russia
Likely to sign state-to-state agreement to reduce reliance on Middle East
Zafar Bhutta
December 31, 2017
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1597181/2-bid-diversify-pakistan-plans-oil-imports-russia
Admittedly Last time I worked in the refinery was more than 30 years ago, but I would presume that since then refining technology has advanced and refineries are now more flexible in the choice of their feedstock. Besides, if it was totally unsuitable and there was no price incentive; GOP would not have considered it more than 4 years ago. In my humble opinion the rejction has more to do with the logistics and the payment procedure.
P.S. Figures about yield and API mentioned here are approximate because crude get heavier as the reservoir is depleted also since all export crudes are blends with out from new wells being blended with older streams; API and yield would change over time.