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Sweet crude oil is a type of petroleum.The New York Mercantile Exchange designates petroleum with less than 0.5% sulfur as sweet. [1] [2]Petroleum containing higher levels of sulfur is called sour crude oil.
Since sour crude is more common than sweet crude in the U.S. part of the Gulf of Mexico, Platts has come out in March 2009 with a new sour crude benchmark called "Americas Crude Marker (ACM)". [3] Dubai Crude and Oman Crude, both sour crude oils, have been used as a benchmark (crude oil) oil marker for Middle East crude oils for some time.
Crude oil is most commonly organised into four types - light, heavy, sweet, and sour. [6] Petroleum is a non-renewable energy source (also known as a " fossil fuel "), so the efficacy of extraction and refining is important for its continued use; multiple techniques are used to detect and to extract crude oil, based on the source rock it is ...
Crude oil is considered "heavy" if it has long hydrocarbon chains, or "light" if it has short hydrocarbon chains: an API gravity of 34 or higher is "light", between 31 and 33 is "medium", and 30 or below is "heavy". Crude is considered "sweet" if it is low in sulphur content (< 0.5%/weight), or "sour" if high (> 1.0%/weight). Generally, the ...
Crude oil contains sulfur in its composition, with the latter being the most abundant element after carbon and hydrogen. [2] Depending on its source, the amount of sulfur present in crude oil can range from 0.05 to 10%. [3] Accordingly, the oil can be classified as sweet or sour if the sulfur concentration is below or above 0.5%, respectively. [4]
For refineries, the interest has been primarily focused on the distribution between the distillation fractions: petrol, paraffin, gas oil, lubricant distillate, etc. Refiners look at the density of the crude oil – whether it is light, medium or heavy – or the sulfur content, i.e. whether the crude oil is “sweet” or “sour”.
Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil [1] that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams [2] and, historically, its cheapest. [3] It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cenovus), Canadian Natural Resources, Petro-Canada (now Suncor) and Talisman Energy (now Repsol Oil & Gas Canada). [4]
Light crude oil is more desirable than heavy oil since it produces a higher yield of gasoline, while sweet oil commands a higher price than sour oil because it has fewer environmental problems and requires less refining to meet sulfur standards imposed on fuels in consuming countries.