Crude oil assay 1.

0 Introduction Crude oil assay was an evaluation of the properties of a sample of crude oil for the benefit of refiners, traders, and other interested parties. Why crude oil assay needed? It is because naturally, all crude oils did not created equally. Some of the part richer in crude oil while some part was poorer of crude oil, thus assay can help by determine the value of oil in addition to helping with plans for refining and working the oil to break it down into usable components. Chemist who were responsible in petroleum product subject the sample to a number of tests. They determine the composition of the oil, identifying any impurities present and their concentrations. In addition they can distill the oil to obtain any information regarding any kind of usable components that will yield. Crude oil assay also looks at qualities of the oil when it is hot and cold, and also explores the quality of finished products like gasoline. These information can determine the final rating of the oil such as light sweet crude for high quality oils. The better the rating, the more valuable of the oil thus more product can be formed from the oils. Crude oils assay are critical when determine where and when to drill of the oil in gas and oil exploration. For traders, they use the crude oils mainly for to find out how much to ask or pay for various oil products, while refineries rely on the assay to develop a plan for processing the oil. They will extract as many useful components as many as possible through process such as distillation and hydrocarbon cracking. By knowing the properties of the oils ahead of time will allow the refinery to determine how it should handle the oil on delivery. It can also be critical for maintaining refinery statistics on the type of oil it processes and the average yields. Goverment agencies use crude oils assay to determine the value oil reserves. Research shown that oils will be depleted for another 20 more years. Thus the goverment needed to control the oil sale. In addition to being useful for assessing the value of oil deposits held by the government, a crude oil assay can also be a valuable forensic tool. Oil contains markers that provide clues into its origins, making it possible to track the origins of oil no matter where it turns up. This can be important for environmental investigations or situations where governments want to avoid buying oil from embargoed or restricted regions.

2.0 Crude oil testing Crude oil assay testing includes oil characterization of whole and the boiling range fractions produced from physical distillation by various procedures. The petroleum assay data is used by clients for detailed refinery engineering and crude oil marketing. Feed stock assay data help refineries optimize the refining process. They are several process needed to do when testing. 2.1 Property measurement/crude inspection 2.1.1 API Gravity Use hydrometer method for measurements to range from values in the low teens(asphaltic crude) to those having values in the 50s (condensates). API is measured along with the temperature of the crude that is then converted to an API at 60 F (the industry standard). 2.1.2 Sulfur Content The sulfur content of crude oils is normally in the range of 0.1-5.0-wt %. Common instrument to measure the sulfur was X Ray Fluorescene. Two techniques normally used was ASTM D4294 or D5291. The methods have large dynamic ranges and allow analysis to be completed in about 3-5 minutes. 2.1.3 Pour Point Defined as the temperature normally 3C above the point a sample no longer moves when inverted. It was importance for crudes that are transported through pipelines from source to load ports. 2.1.4 Whole Crude Simulated Distillation This method normally is performed by ASTM D5307. This gaschromatography method is a quick and robust method for determining a true boiling point curve and predicting crude yields. This external standard method is done on 5 metre fused silica columns having thin film thickness allowing test normally is done by the hydrometer method and is simple to perform, it with the temperature of the crude that is then converted to an API at 60 F (the industry standard). This external standard method is done on 5 metre fused silica columns having thin film thickness allowing the analysis to be completed within an hour.

2.1.5 Full Assay Done by combining an atmospheric and vacuum distillation run to provide a TBP(True Boiling Point Curve) These batch distillation method are labor intensive, taking between three to five days, they allow the collection of distillation fractions that can be utilized for testing.

Figure 1: Crude Distillation 3.0 The Prediction Of Crude Assay Properties

3.0.1 Needs for Rapid and Accurate Prediction of Crude Assay Properties Crude oils must be transported in large volumes such as in barrels over very significant distances to analytical facilities capable of performing the required tests. The first physical distillation must be conducted for the determination of the distillation yield. It is prerequisite to the narrow distillation cuts for the further testing. Once in lab, it should take 2- 4 days to complete and take about 2 to 6 weeks to complete testing of the various testing through each distillation. The time period to transport the oils to the lab take about maybe several weeks to several month. Thus great accuracy and detailed information provided by conventional assay methodologies and newer analytical methodologies was needed to provide timely information for rapid desicion making.

3.0.2 Predictions from Chromatographic Data Chromatography approach has been developed for the prediction of the kinematic viscosity of the crude oil. The ability to predict viscosity is very important as it has direct impact on the production and transportation of crude oils and their products. In this study, the boiling points fraction was higher than 200C and were used as stationary phases, and the retention time

measurement were made with 13 solutes at 50C. Five parameters were determined relating the intermolecular interactions to kinematic viscosity which it is:

a. London forces b. Keesom and Debye forces c. an acidic term d. a basicity term e. a term for the tendency of crude oil to interact with polarizable solutes The advantages of this approach when compare with the other approaches were the parameters have physical meaning and are directly linked to the molecular interactions. Crude oil viscosity was found to depend primarily on dipoledipole and dipole-induced dipole interactions. Hydrogen bonds were not found to play a predominant role in the viscosity of the crude oils examined.

3.0.3 Predictions from GC/MS Measurements Gas chromatography also can be used to predict the crude oil boiling point and its properties. The method creates a statistical correlation between the known properties of a training set of crude oils and their GC/MS data. The properties of unknown crude oils are thus predicted from the training set and the measured GC/MS data of the unknown crude oils. The major advantages of this approaces was simulated distillation information provided naturally by gas chromatography is coupled to detailed compositional information possible by the mass spectrometer. This method not only provided detailed information about molecular information of crude oils and their fractions but it can be used to for the chemometric predictions of the crude oils properties across the boiling range as well.

4.0 Conclusion Crude oil assay were important when refining the crude oils. Each crude oil type hasunique molecular, chemical characteristics. No crude oil type is identical and there are crucial differences in crude oil quality. The results of crude oil assay testing provide extensive detailed hydrocarbon and compositional analysis for refiners, oil traders and producers. Before start refining, the assay must be done and several test require to evaluate the crude oils.

5.0 References Crude Assay Is The Key To Optimal Peformance, Inspectorate.Com Murray R. Watt and Stilianos G. Roussis, Crude Assay