GUIDE TO WORLD EXPORT CRUDES BRENT BLEND, N. SEA BENCHMARK, ASSAYED

June 25, 1990
Richard A. Corbett Refining/Petrochemical Editor Brent Blend, an important benchmark crude oil exported from the North Sea, has been recently assayed. Brent blend is a light, paraffinic, low-sulfur crude oil that yields a full range of good quality, low-sulfur products. Brent blend is a blend of crudes from eight different fields mainly in the British sector of the North Sea (OGJ, May 23, 1983, pp. 69-76). One of the fields, Murchison, straddles the median line between the British and

Richard A. Corbett
Refining/Petrochemical Editor

Brent Blend, an important benchmark crude oil exported from the North Sea, has been recently assayed. Brent blend is a light, paraffinic, low-sulfur crude oil that yields a full range of good quality, low-sulfur products.

Brent blend is a blend of crudes from eight different fields mainly in the British sector of the North Sea (OGJ, May 23, 1983, pp. 69-76).

One of the fields, Murchison, straddles the median line between the British and Norwegian sectors.

The qualities of the various crude streams are fairly uniform.

Current production is 700,000 b/d; however, Brent blend production began to decline in 1987 and is expected to decline about 350,000 b/d from current levels by 1995,

Production from all of the fields is collected at the South Cormorant platform and transferred by pipeline to the Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands, where it is stabilized prior to storage and transfer to tankers. The crude is loaded from the Sullom Voe terminal where tankers up to 350,000 dwt can be handled.

The standard cargo size is 500,000 bbl.

GOOD REFINING PROPERTIES

Brent blend's production rate and good refining properties has made it a benchmark in world crude oil trading (see accompanying TBP distillation). Naphtha cuts are of intermediate quality making it suitable for gasoline production.

The kerosine cut is of intermediate quality with good cold flow and burning properties. The cut is well suited to jet-fuel production.

The low-sulfur gas oil fraction also has good cetane index making it a good diesel and heating oil material.

Straight-run fuel oils are low viscosity, medium pour point, with low sulfur and metals. Vacuum residue is also fairly low in sulfur. Vacuum gas oil is low in sulfur and quite paraffinic, making it a good cracking feedstock. Both atmospheric and vacuum residue are suitable for thermal cracking, vis-breaking, and coking. The paraffinic nature of Brent blend gives it good potential for lube oil production under suitable processing conditions.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.