Course 03 of 20 · Crude Oil Desk Academy

Grades, Assays and Refinery Value

Stage A, Orientation. Level 2 of 10.

Assay interpretation, product yield, sulphur and acidity, and which refinery configuration can economically run which grade.

115 chapters · 10 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01, Course 02

Enrol or enquire See the 115 chapters
How a chapter is sized

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter is a single self-contained explainer of 8 to 10 narrated minutes, covering one idea to the point where you can use it.

Chapters run in order. Each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

10 modules · 115 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Grade as a Commercial Object Ch 1-10
  1. What a Crude Grade Actually Is
  2. Hydrocarbon Families and Why They Matter
  3. Carbon Number, Molecular Weight and Boiling Point
  4. The Light to Heavy Axis
  5. The Sweet to Sour Axis
  6. Two Grades, One Gravity, Different Value
  7. Where a Grade Gets Its Name
  8. Stream Stability and Quality Drift
  9. The Vocabulary of Crude Quality
  10. How a Refiner Thinks About a Barrel
M1 Reading the Assay Ch 11-21
  1. What a Crude Assay Is
  2. Who Produces an Assay and How Often
  3. The Anatomy of an Assay Report
  4. The Whole Crude Properties Page
  5. Reading the Cut Table
  6. Fractions, Cuts and Boiling Ranges
  7. The True Boiling Point Curve, Part One: What It Shows
  8. The True Boiling Point Curve, Part Two: Reading Yield Off It
  9. Distillation Methods and Why Curves Differ
  10. Converting Between Distillation Bases
  11. Assay Vintage, Provenance and Trust
M2 The Cuts, One by One Ch 22-33
  1. Light Ends and Why They Escape
  2. Naphtha: The Light Liquid Cut
  3. What Makes Naphtha Good or Poor
  4. Kerosene and the Jet Cut
  5. Why a Jet Cut Fails Specification
  6. Gas Oil and the Diesel Pool
  7. Diesel Quality: Cetane and Cold Flow
  8. Atmospheric Residue: What Is Left at the Bottom
  9. Vacuum Gas Oil and Its Importance
  10. Vacuum Residue and the Bottom of the Barrel
  11. Where Each Fraction Goes Next
  12. A Cut-by-Cut Walk Through One Assay
M3 Contaminants and What Each Costs Ch 34-46
  1. Sulphur: Where It Sits in the Barrel
  2. How Sulphur Distributes Across the Cuts
  3. What Sulphur Costs a Refiner
  4. The Specification Wall
  5. Hydrogen Sulphide and the Safety Dimension
  6. Total Acid Number and Naphthenic Acid
  7. Corrosion, Metallurgy and the Acidity Ceiling
  8. Nitrogen and Catalyst Poisoning
  9. Nickel, Vanadium and the Metals Problem
  10. Salt, Water and the Desalter
  11. Mercury, Arsenic and the Trace Contaminants
  12. Asphaltenes, Stability and Compatibility
  13. Putting a Price on a Contaminant
M4 Calculating Yield Ch 47-57
  1. From Assay to Yield: The Arithmetic
  2. Volume Yield Against Weight Yield
  3. Why Yields Do Not Add Up to a Hundred
  4. Choosing Cut Points
  5. Moving a Cut Point: A Worked Example
  6. Straight-Run Yield Against Achievable Yield
  7. How Conversion Changes the Slate
  8. Computing a Slate for a Simple Plant
  9. Computing a Slate for a Complex Plant
  10. Ranking Two Grades on Yield Alone
  11. What a Yield Comparison Leaves Out
M5 The Units Inside a Refinery Ch 58-68
  1. A Refinery Described as a Sequence of Units
  2. The Crude Distillation Unit
  3. The Vacuum Distillation Unit
  4. Hydrotreating: Removing What Cannot Be Distilled Out
  5. Catalytic Reforming
  6. Fluid Catalytic Cracking
  7. Hydrocracking
  8. Coking and the Destruction of Residue
  9. Visbreaking and Partial Residue Upgrading
  10. Alkylation, Isomerisation and the Gasoline Units
  11. Hydrogen, Sulphur Recovery and the Supporting Plant
M6 Configuration and Which Grade It Can Run Ch 69-81
  1. The Topping Refinery
  2. The Hydroskimming Configuration
  3. The Cracking Configuration
  4. The Full Conversion Configuration
  5. Complexity as a Single Number and Its Limits
  6. Configuration Decides the Buyer List
  7. Why a Simple Plant Cannot Take a Heavy Barrel
  8. Why a Coker Wants What Others Refuse
  9. The Plant's Constraint Set
  10. Which Constraint Bites First
  11. The Metallurgy Ceiling in Practice
  12. The Hydrogen Balance as a Buying Constraint
  13. Residue Disposal as a Buying Constraint
M7 What the Barrel Is Worth to This Plant Ch 82-93
  1. Product Values as an Input
  2. Gross Product Worth: The Idea
  3. Building Gross Product Worth, Part One: Pricing the Slate
  4. Building Gross Product Worth, Part Two: Quality Giveaway
  5. Processing Cost: The Variable Side
  6. From Gross Product Worth to a Grade's Net Value
  7. Crack Spreads as a Shortcut and Where They Mislead
  8. One Grade, Two Values
  9. Regional Product Demand and Grade Worth
  10. Seasonality in What a Grade Is Worth
  11. Three Grades, One Plant: A Worked Ranking
  12. From Worth to Willingness to Pay
M8 The Grade Families Ch 94-105
  1. The Grade Families as a Map
  2. Light Sweet Crude and Its Appeal
  3. The Light Sweet Weakness
  4. Condensate and the Ultra-Light Streams
  5. Light Shale Crude and the Assay Surprise
  6. Medium Sour Crude as the Market Workhorse
  7. Heavy Sour Crude and the Conversion Premium
  8. Extra Heavy Crude and Bitumen-Derived Streams
  9. Diluent, Synthetic Crude and Blended Streams
  10. High-Acidity Crudes and Their Narrow Market
  11. Waxy Crudes and the Pour Point Problem
  12. Reading an Unfamiliar Grade Quickly
M9 From Assay to Decision Ch 106-115
  1. The Assay to Decision Workflow
  2. A Worked Valuation, Part One: Two Cargoes on Offer
  3. A Worked Valuation, Part Two: The Slates Computed
  4. A Worked Valuation, Part Three: Penalties Priced In
  5. A Worked Valuation, Part Four: A Verdict for Each Plant
  6. When the Characterisation Cannot Be Trusted
  7. When the Cargo Does Not Match Its Paperwork
  8. What Assay-Based Valuation Cannot Do
  9. Judgement, Pattern and the Experienced Eye
  10. Where the Grade Thread Is Picked Up Next

The brochure gives each of these 115 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 3 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Crude Oil Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway