Crude Oil Desk Academy
Twenty courses. Beginner to advanced. No course assumes what it has not taught.
The learner must be able to explain why a seemingly cheaper crude grade produces a worse delivered commercial result once quality, freight, timing, financing and the customer's own processing requirements are taken into account.
20 courses · 100 to 130 chapters each · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · self-paced
Twenty courses in dependency order
A course may only assume capability taught by a lower-numbered course, and the level column never falls as you move down the table.
| # | Course | Level | Builds on | What this course owns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Orientation | |||
| 01 | Crude Oil Business from Zero | 1/10 | none | The commodity, the physical chain, the participants, the shape of a transaction, and why price and risk exist at all. |
| 02 | Quantity, Measurement and the Barrel | 2/10 | 01 | Volume and temperature correction, density, basic sediment and water, gauging, outturn, and which figure the contract makes binding. |
| 03 | Grades, Assays and Refinery Value | 2/10 | 01, 02 | Assay interpretation, product yield, sulphur and acidity, and which refinery configuration can economically run which grade. |
| 04 | Benchmarks and Physical Price Quotations | 3/10 | 01, 03 | How Dated Brent, WTI and Dubai assessments are constructed, and what a published quotation actually binds a party to. |
| B | Commercial execution | |||
| 05 | Spot and Term Purchase Agreements | 3/10 | 01, 04 | Clause-level contract interpretation, Incoterms, quantity tolerance, pricing periods, governing law and jurisdiction. |
| 06 | Cargo Operations and Documents | 4/10 | 02, 05 | Nomination, laycan, laytime and demurrage calculation, bills of lading, letters of indemnity and the full document set. |
| 07 | Pipeline, Terminal and Storage Access | 4/10 | 02, 06 | Tariffs, nominations, proration, quality banks, throughput agreements and storage leases as contracted rights. |
| 08 | Quality Adjustments, Claims and Settlement | 5/10 | 02, 03, 06 | Constructing and defending quality and quantity claims, final invoicing, dispute evidence and resolution. |
| C | Market analysis | |||
| 09 | Supply, Demand, Balances and Trade Flows | 5/10 | 01, 03, 04 | Building a supply and demand balance, reading inventory data, and modelling trade flows and disruptions. |
| 10 | Differential, Location and Benchmark Basis | 6/10 | 03, 04, 09 | Why grades trade at differentials, decomposing basis, and trading location and grade spreads. |
| 11 | Calendar Spreads, Curve Shape and Storage Economics | 6/10 | 04, 07, 10 | Contango and backwardation, carry arithmetic, and storage as a traded commercial decision. |
| D | Risk and money | |||
| 12 | Physical Crude Hedging | 7/10 | 04, 10, 11 | Hedge instrument selection, ratio and sizing, pricing-period alignment, residual basis and hedge accounting basics. |
| 13 | Working Capital, Credit and Trade Finance | 7/10 | 05, 06, 08 | The cash cycle, borrowing base, letters of credit, margin and collateral, and liquidity under stress. |
| 14 | Arbitrage and Delivered Netbacks | 7/10 | 03, 10, 12, 13 | Full delivered-cost construction, arbitrage evaluation, and the place of freight and timing in that decision. |
| E | Advanced commercial practice | |||
| 15 | Refinery Crude Procurement | 8/10 | 03, 14 | Buying for a plant: crude diet optimisation, linear programming inputs and procurement strategy. |
| 16 | Blending and Quality Optionality | 8/10 | 03, 15 | Blend economics, specification arbitrage, and the optionality created by quality tolerance. |
| 17 | Tenders, Term Supply and Origination | 8/10 | 05, 15 | Tender construction and evaluation, term negotiation, and originating non-standard supply. |
| F | Structuring and integration | |||
| 18 | Options and Structured Hedge Decisions | 9/10 | 11, 12 | Option mechanics on crude, structured hedges, and when optionality beats a linear hedge. |
| 19 | Portfolio Management, Disruption and Counterparty Failure | 9/10 | 12, 13, 17 | Running a constrained book, liquidity stress, supply disruption, default and replacement cost. |
| 20 | Integrated Crude Merchant Simulation | 10/10 | 14, 16, 18, 19 | A full merchant book run under cash, logistics and credit constraints, with every decision defended. |
Every course states the capability it owns. The brochure carries the same table plus the chapter list behind each course, which is the quickest way to find the course that teaches the thing you cannot currently do.
The whole desk end to end, in one programme
The twenty courses take one capability at a time, in dependency order, for someone building from the ground up. The Crude Oil Desk Master Programme does the opposite: it runs the whole crude oil desk front to back in a single sequence, for someone who already works on a desk and wants the shape of the job quickly rather than the long route.
Take whichever matches your starting point. They cover the same ground and several of the numbered courses draw on the same material.
Take one course, or the whole pathway
Each course stands alone. Taken in order, the twenty build one desk capability from no prior knowledge.