Is heavy or light oil more expensive?
Light crude oil receives a higher price than heavy crude oil on commodity markets because it produces a higher percentage of gasoline and diesel fuel when converted into products by an oil refinery.
What is light heavy differential?
The light-heavy product price differential is a measure of the difference in price between light products (e.g., gasoline and diesel) and heavy fuel oil. The light-heavy differential is a key measure of refinery market conditions.
Why is heavy oil cheaper?
Lighter oils generally receive higher prices than heavier oils, because they are easier (and cheaper) to process in refineries. Where the oil is produced geographically also matters, because it needs to be transported from its point of production to a refinery. This impacts the price received for the oil.
Is Russian oil heavy or light?
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), however, estimates that Russia has 13.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable heavy oil and 33.7 billion technically recoverable barrels of bitumen.
Why is Western Canadian Select oil so cheap?
Since the oil in WCS is much heavier than WTI (which is a light oil), and further away from main markets, WCS is priced at a further discount to WTI. Other oil streams produced from the oil sands are also priced at a discount to WTI or WCS.
What is heavy crude oil used for?
While light oils primarily used to create fuels such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels, heavy crudes (which also yield these transportation fuels) also provide feedstock for plastics, petrochemicals, other fuels and road surfacing.
Is heavy oil better than light oil?
Weight of Crude: Light oil vs. Heavy oil evaporates slowly and contains material that will be used to make heavy products like asphalt. Light oil requires less processing and produces a greater percentage of gasoline and diesel than heavy oil.
Why is light oil expensive?
Lighter oils generally receive higher prices than heavier oils, because they are easier (and cheaper) to process in refineries.
Why is heavy oil important?