Meeting Archives

Minutes, Crude Oil Quality Association Meetings

Proceedings, Crude Oil Quality Group Meeting

Philadelphia, PA, 18 June 2009

COQG gratefully acknowledges Spiral Software Ltd. for providing a continental breakfast, and Hydrocarbon Publishing Company for providing the morning and afternoon breaks for all meeting attendees.

Links are provided (document) for copies of all of the day’s presentations in PDF format.

Subcommittee Meetings

Canadian Crude Oil Quality Subcommittee

Ron Fisher of BP provided the report.  As reported at past meetings, data are needed on quality of Canadian crudes at the breakout point, e.g. Cushing, Chicago, and Washington State.  To date, only two companies have provided data to Crude Quality Inc. in support of the project.  In another effort to obtain data, Ron will put together a cover letter with the fillable PDF forms attached that will be sent to COQG distribution. In other activities, the Subcommittee is working to create a “Quick Reference Card for Alberta crudes.”  The first part, which is referred to as the “Brewmasters Guide”, will list the key producers, the injection site on the Enbridge Pipeline, and the production method for all major Alberta grades, and the second part will focus on the key properties for these.  Sweet syncrude quality if also of considerable interest.  Among the issues are how is their quality assurance controlled?  What are their specifications? And, were they produced by hydrocracking or coking?  A final item of interest is what are the future plans of producers in light of the turndown in the economy, precipitous drop in price since 2008, and the growing attention being focused on their “carbon footprint.”

 

“Canadian Crude Quality Technical Association Update”, Bruce Kennedy, KBW Engineers, representing the CCQTA.  Bruce provided an update that included the Scope and Current Activity of the six active projects within the association, and discussed four project proposals that are under consideration.  The currently active projects are:

• Iron Fouling
• Phosphorus in Crude Oil
• Oilsands Bitumen Processability
• TAN Project
•  NGL Contamination
•  Condensate/Diluent Quality

The four project proposals that are under consideration are:

• On-line Contaminant Monitoring
• Water Free Desalting
• Database on H₂S levels in major market crude oil streams.
• Fluorocarbons in Crude

The initial Scope of the latter proposal includes gathering information on: 

• The types and concentrations of fluorocarbons used in various oilfield chemicals;
• Impact of these on refinery processes; and
• Their impact on finished products and stability in typical refinery unit operations. 

 

“Operational Issues Processing Western Canadian Crude Oil”, Scott Bieber, Baker Hughes.  Despite the recent drop in crude oil prices, production of Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin\n (WCSB) streams is forecast to continue growing – but at a slower pace.  These streams include both heavy conventional and oil sands derived bitumen feed stocks.  The latter may be produced by surface mining or a number of in-site methods.  Much of this production will be destined for U.S. refiners posing a number of challenges.  In his presentation, Scott focused on those related to desalting, and some strategies that could help mitigate or, at least, minimize difficulties.

In desalter operations, filterable solids, asphaltenes, and non-desaltable chlorides in the feed stocks can contribute to stable emulsions, oil and solids in effluent water, mud buildup, and increased conductivity among other problems.  High temperature naphthenic acid corrosion can also be a concern with bitumen blends from the WCSB.  Several mitigation options that have been used with these feed stocks are blending, metallurgical upgrades, and chemical inhibition.

In closing, Scott cited some of the potential benefits accruing to refiners processing these streams.  Among them:

●    Reduced feedstock costs
●    Increased feedstock flexibility
●    Improved refinery profitability 

 

Domestic Trading Center Subcommittee (DTC)

“Domestic Sweet/WTI Specifications”, Dennis Sutton, Marathon Petroleum.  In opening his presentation, Dennis noted that approximately in the 1990s COQG actively supported development of the LLS specifications and was also involved in extensive work related to quality of crude oil transported on the Basin system.  In January 2005, John Maurer of Valero proposed formation of what was to become the Domestic Trading Center Subcommittee.  Subsequently, in May 2005 at its first meeting, the Subcommittee identified a number of trading centers as being of interest and also the important quality parameters to be considered.  Ultimately, Domestic Sweet crude oil at Cushing, OK was selected for detailed study and data began to be collected on its quality.  The work of the Subcommittee gained considerable notice following publication of an article in Oil Daily that highlighted COQG’s efforts directed at developing more comprehensive specifications on the stream. 

The sample included in the March 2009 ASTM Crude Oil Interlaboratory Crosscheck Program was of Domestic Sweet from Cushing, and the results reported by the numerous participating laboratories form an excellent basis for defining quality of the stream.  Further sampling and analyses of Cushing samples are to be done over the next several months.  Collective data from these tests will be reviewed and representative specifications developed.  Following that, it is planned to approach Nymex and propose that these be adopted.  Questions remain to be answered, however, on how conformance to these expanded specifications will be enforced. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General Meeting

 In opening the General Session, Harry Giles, COQG Director, gave a brief summary of some of the business conducted at the two business meetings the evening of June 17, 2009.  The first of these was of meeting of the Board of Directors of the Crude Oil Quality Association (COQA).  Some of the issues related to transition for COQG to COQA include:

Effective date
Transfer of financial assets
New Web site www.coqa-inc.org

 

It was agreed that the COQG steering committee will continue in an advisory capacity to the Board.  Anti-trust compliance is of paramount importance, and a draft statement was provided to Board members so that they can have it reviewed by their corporation counsel.  Finally, an application to the Internal Revenue Service is being prepared for COQA recognition as a tax exempt organization under Section 501 (c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Following this, the COQG steering committee met to consider what was agreed to by the COQAS Board in transitioning to the new association.  In its capacity as an advisory panel, speakers and topics for the next meeting in Houston, TX on October 22, 2009 were considered.  Dates and venues for the 2010 meetings were also discussed and the following agreed to: 

• Early spring in New Orleans – joint with CCQTA subject to their approval.

• Mid-year in Denver

• Autumn in Houston

Technical Presentations

 “Catalytic Additive for Reduced Fouling in Hydrocarbon Processing”, Frank Karbarz, Stolat Enterprises, LLC.    An additive has been developed that mitigates surface fouling in hydrocarbon processing.  Frank presented data and photographs illustrating its effectiveness in reducing carbonization in various refined products.  The additive was also reported to help improve distillate stability, lubricity, electrical conductivity, and oxidation stability.  

 

“Portland Pipeline Corporation/Montreal Pipeline Limited”, Chris Gillies, Portland Pipeline Corporation.  The system dates from 1941 when a 12” pipeline was built to transport crude oil from Portland, ME to Montreal, QC as part of the wartime effort.  Currently, the system consists of 24” and 18” parallel pipelines, 23 tanks in South Portland with a capacity of 3.6 million barrels and 7 tanks in Montreal with a capacity of 1.9 million barrels, and a pier at Portland that will accommodate 170,000 DWT vessels with a maximum draft of 52’.  The dual pipelines have a combined capacity of about 600 MBD, but are only operating at about 450 MBD.  PMPL is evaluating reversal of the 18” pipeline to bring WCSB crude oil to Portland for out loading and delivery to U.S. East coast, and perhaps other, refineries.  The tanks in South Portland tanks are not assigned to any specific grades or streams.  The tanks are managed using a grading system that groups the crude by quality specifications as defined by the PMPL Crude Quality Committee.  PMPL uses best efforts to limit contamination in the South Portland tank farm, but bottoms can result in up to 10% contamination.  In Montreal, the tanks are assigned by PMPL to specific streams, depending on   whether they are for condensate, or lube or sour crudes. 

PMPL makes a “best effort” to minimize contamination.  All in-coming crude oils are assigned one of five grade codes. Shippers are notified when their crude is combined with oil that is two or more grades different.  When a discharge or transfer is being scheduled within the South Portland facility, priority is to assign the donor oil to a receipt tank of the same crude type; if that is not possible, then to the closest grade code.  Ship demurrage is a greater issue than crude degradation.  The streams in the Montreal tank farm are shared by all shippers and are subject to commingling with other crudes approved for that stream, but Montreal refineries are delivered “like molecules” out of PMPL inventory.

 

“Minicut Assay System Overview”, Steve Graybill, NEXIDEA, Inc.  The Minicut Assay System was developed in the 1980s by HPI Consultants, and included crude oil libraries issued at several times over the following years.  In 2008, NEXIDEA, Inc. acquired HPI Consultants.  Minicut is an assay management system that allows easy cutting, blending, modeling, reporting and updating of crude oil information.  The associated crude oil library presents data in Excel format, and includes over 330 crude oils of which over 90 are newer than 2006.

Steve provided a demonstration of the system illustrating its various functionalities and quality control measures.  One useful function is the “Crude Oil Updater” that updates assays based upon changes in whole crude oil properties.  Another useful function is the “Assay Manager” which allows the user to:

Select from available assays
Blend up to 29 crudes by mass or volume
Create a blend assay
Compare assays
Report property cut information in a side-by-side table
Graph component properties of blends or individual crudes 

 

“Spectroscopy Based Crude Assays for Laboratory, At-Line, and On-Line Applications”, Drs. Paul Giammatteo and Paul Edwards, NMR Associates, LLC. Various spectroscopic methods provide the means for rapidly determining a number of whole crude oil properties.  Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has the capability for providing data on distillation yields, water content, API gravity (density), and carbon distribution among other properties.  NMR can be applied in a variety of laboratory, at-line, and/or online configurations.  It offers rapid, cost effective and simultaneous multi-parameter analyses; measurement of both bulk and trace properties, and is ideal for use in combination with software planning tools.

In illustrating his presentation, Paul presented a number of graphs of NMR spectra useful for comparing and contrasting different crude oils.  Among these were:

 

• Spectral variability of six different crude oils

• Comparison of physical TBP curves with NMR predicted TBP curves for the same six
• Spectral differences for water content ranging from zero to nearly 20 volume percent
• Spectral variations for differences in asphaltenes and vanadyl
• An on-line refinery application illustrating changes in API gravity resulting from tank switching. 

 

“Fast & Effective Crude Information and Valuation – the online way”, Patrice Perkins, PetroTech Intel LLC.  CIMS (Crude Information Management System) is a Web-based crude oil information system that is updated regularly using a number of data sources.  It serves as a central repository of information on over 3,000 crude, condensate, and gas fields.  Among the data it contains are crude name, location, and load ports; whole crude properties and assay data; monthly cargo API gravity tracking and long-term API gravity trends; and updates on new crude grades.  The historical API gravity trend charts provide a useful indication of whether a stream is getting lighter or heavier, is stable, or exhibits cyclic variation.  These are useful in deciding when a new assay should be performed.  The system allows sorting by a number of factors including crude name, location, and whole crude API, and searching by factors such as whole crude API and sulfur content and region.  Patrice illustrated the system’s functionalities with a number of different data screens.  An important feature of the system is that it can be used for company specific proprietary data, with users being able to add, edit, or view the data.

A few of the recent changes that have been incorporated are: 

• Link from Haverly’s H/COMET application
  News Briefs
  Enhanced sorting capability
  On-line PTI Intelligence Reports and year-end indices

Planned future enhancements include more company specific information, additional load port information, and more extensive assay data.  

 

“H/COMET”, David Alexander, Haverly Systems, Inc.  H/COMET (Crude Oil Management EvaluaTor) is a Web-based application for viewing and analyzing assay information.  It can be accessed from a corporate server installation or live on the HIS/PTI server.  H/COMET allows a user, among other things, to:

 

• Quickly view an assay
• Search for crudes
• Export assay data to Excel or Word
• Compare quality data for crudes side by side
•  Re-cut single crudes or blends to a desired set of cut-points
•  Optimize blend recipes, targeting bulk or fraction quality specifications.

The system is also linked to PTI CIMS system as mentioned by Patrice Perkins in her presentation. 

 

“The Launch of OpportunityCrudes.com”, Ms. Zahra Valli and Tom Yeung, Hydrocarbon Publishing Co.  Hydrocarbon Publishing Company recently launched a new Website:  www.OpportunityCrudes.com  In so doing, their “vision is to create a platform where professionals in the upstream and downstream segments can share information on how to address the bright prospects and potential challenges of processing low-quality crudes amid concerns about energy security and climate change.”  Opportunity crudes hold the key to future energy security for three basic reasons: 

• Oil market fundamentals are changing
• Opportunity crudes ensure secure energy and refining margins
• The world cannot rely solely on biofuels

 The Website offers the latest information related to heavy oils and high acid crudes including regulatory legislation, market trends, and technology developments.

A demonstration of the Website by Mr. Yeung illustrated the numerous and diverse screens provided.  Among these are News, Crude Prices, Market Overview, Environmental & Regulatory Legislation, Technology Updates, and Construction Projects.  A recently added feature is “Tutorials” which currently includes “How to Handle High Acid Crudes (HAC) and Bottom of the Barrel (BOB) fractions.”  A second tutorial is under development. 

 

This concluded the June 18, 2009 meeting of the COQG.  The next meeting will be October 22, 2009 in Houston, TX

 Harry N. Giles
Director, COQA