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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Refining & Petrochemicals

Sour crude

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In oil, gas & mining, sour crude means: Crude oil with a high sulphur content, usually more than 0.5 percent. Crude with little sulphur is called sweet crude.

In Turkish: ekşi ham petrol, yüksek kükürtlü ham petrol

How it is used

Sour crude is cheaper because refineries need extra units to remove the sulphur, and it may contain H2S that is dangerous to handle. Traders and refiners talk about light sweet, medium sour and heavy sour grades. The same words describe gas: sour gas and sweet gas.

Example sentences

  1. The refinery was upgraded so that it can process cheaper sour crude.

  2. Sour crude from this field needs H2S monitoring at the loading terminal.

Common collocations

  • sweet crude
  • light sweet crude
  • medium sour crude
  • sour gas
  • crude oilOil in its natural state as it comes out of the ground, before it is refined into fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
  • API gravityA scale created by the American Petroleum Institute that shows how light or heavy a crude oil is compared with water. A higher number means lighter oil; water is 10 degrees.
  • H2SThe chemical formula of hydrogen sulphide, a colourless, highly toxic gas found in some wells and mines. It smells of rotten eggs at low levels but can quickly deaden the sense of smell.
  • refineryAn industrial plant where crude oil is heated, separated and chemically changed to make products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG and asphalt.

More terms: Refining & Petrochemicals

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