Refinery Challenges When Processing Tight Oil

Tight oils from shale are more readily available in North America with incentives on cost. However, these typically lighter crude oils don’t come without some processing challenges.  Some of the challenges include high variability in API gravity, H2S entrained in the crude, amine-based H2S scavengers added in the pipeline or railcars prior to transporting, paraffin waxes, high filterable solids content, crude incompatibilities from blending, energy balancing, and balancing the intermediate cut point yields for downstream utilization.

This presentation will provide an overview on challenges with processing tight oils, including examples on how refiners are tackling these difficulties.