And to repeat what I just had to post under "Peak Oil News" that reveals there are some inside of Peak Oil (not mentioning names, of course) still are clueless despite having been explained reality numerous time:
From the peanut gallery: “The next thing the world is going to wake up to is that the 10 mm barrels the U.S. is producing
isn’t oil – it is condensate…that doesn’t meet domestic refinery demand of 17 mm barrels per day of REAL oil.”
That is not the truth. It’s the same foolishness repeated from the same foolish statements of others. And typically made by those too lazy to do the readily available research about the US refining industry. So again, for the umpteenth time:
CONDENSATE IS OIL. It is light oil typically graded as an API of 40 or lighter.
And condensate/light oil is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to the refining industry. Refineries that have for may years processed BLENDED OIL with a gravity very close to 31.5 API.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafH ... RAPUS2&f=AIOW US refinery run at an optimum level with BLENDED OIL with a gravity around 31.5 API. A blended oil made by mixing light oils, such as condensate, with heavy oils, such as those that make up a significant % of US oil imports. Almost 68% of oil imports range from 30 API to less then 20 API. IOW US oil imports are dominated by HEAVY OILS.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_ipct_k_a.htmIn fact, those BILLIONS OF BBLS of dilbit the US has imported from Canada has a gravity of only 23 API. And its gravity was only that light because the bitumen had first been blended with condensate/light oil in Canada. Without blending to make dilbit it could not have been pumped down pipeleines. Thus the term “dil (diluted) + bit (bitumen) = dilbit. Diluted with condensate/light oil. Hundreds of millions of bbls of condensate/light oil imported from the US since Canada produced only about 70% of what was needed.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafH ... RAPUS2&f=AHeavy oils, such as imports from Canada and Venezuela, have no use for US refineries without being blended with condensate/light oil. Prior to the shale boom the US had to import condensate/light oil to blend with domestic and imported oil. Just as east coast Canadian refineries have been importing Eagle Ford condensate for years to blend with their heavy oil imports.
If you don’t believe the Rockman’s words here the straight poop directly from Reuters in 2015. From
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-ref ... IV20150227“While the qualities of crudes vary widely, U.S. refiners have discerning requirements. The average density of crude processed in U.S. refineries has been steady, varying by only 3 degrees over the last three decades, or about 17 kg per cubic metre, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
U.S. refiners like to process crudes averaging around 30-32 degrees API, or between 865 and 875 kg per cubic metre (link.reuters.com/vys24w). Refineries achieve this remarkably steady performance by blending crudes to achieve a combined feed as close as possible to the ideal. Bakken, at just 815 kg per cubic metre, is much lighter than the 865-875 kg refineries are trying to achieve. Eagle Ford is lighter still.
U.S. refiners have responded to the rising output of very light domestic crudes by cutting back purchases of other light oils from abroad while importing more heavy crudes to keep the average density roughly constant. Strict blending requirements explain why U.S. imports of light oils from countries such as Nigeria have dwindled to almost nothing while refiners import record quantities of much heavier oil from Canada.
In fact, Western Canadian Select (WCS) is the perfect complement for shale oil production from the Bakken and Eagle Ford. WCS is around 55 kg per cubic metre heavier than refiners would like on average, while Bakken is around 55 kg too light, so they blend perfectly with one another (link.reuters.com/jat24w).”