MIDDLE DISTILLATES
Increasing demand, the primary growth driver.
Crude oil is one of the most valuable commodities on earth but is of little use in its raw state. Middle distillates are used primarily as fuel for heating, lighting and transportation globally. When crude oil is refined, middle distillates make up between 25% and 40% of the oil products yield. Given the demand and higher value of middle distillates, however, heavier distillates are often cracked to increase the overall quantity of middle distillate produced. 1WEC works closely with refineries, supply chain partners and utilities to deliver their middle distillates needs.
- Middle distillates is the term used to describe a range of refined products, which result from the separation of crude oil through fractional distillation, between lighter products (LPG and gasoline) and heavier products (fuel oil).
- Physically they are clear, colourless to light yellow, flammable liquids with between ten and twenty carbon atoms; shorter carbon chains than lighter distillates but longer than residual products.
- Middle distillates are drained from the column in side steams as two primary fractions from which sales products with defined properties are cut:
- Gasoil – heating oil (kerosene), diesel and jet fuel
- Heavy gasoil – heating oil and diesel fuel
- The finished petroleum products are created through further refining processes and blending various components (hydrocarbon blend stocks ranging from butane to heavy naphtha) which will have different compositions depending on the crude oil selected.
- The average yield of middle distillates is about 40% of the volume of crude oil; taking into account gasoil produced from breaking the hydrocarbon chains of residual fuels through catalytic or thermal cracking. This percentage has significantly increased over the decades in tandem with the advancement of technology.
- Kerosene – used as fuel for cooking and lighting in less-developed countries, fuel for portable cooking stoves, as an emergency heat source during power failures. Kerosene can also be used in chemistry as a diluent or to store crystals in X-ray crystallography. It is also an effective pesticide and is used in the entertainment industry for fire performances.
- Jet Fuel – Based on either an unleaded kerosene or a blend of naphtha and kerosene, is used in aviation.
- Diesel / Gas Oil – the only major difference between the two is sulphur content. Gas oil is used as home heating fuel in some Western European countries and is also used in off road agricultural machinery. Diesel, however, is the fuel used for cars, lorries, and other road transport. While diesel engines can run on gas oil, gas oil has a lower tax added to its price so a dye is added to stop people filling their cars up with the cheaper product.
Oil products are transported from the refinery to be blended and stored before entering the retail market and reaching final consumers.
- Aerospace and military – Jet oil for aircraft engines.
- Domestic and commercial heating – Kerosene.
- Transportation – Diesel.
1World Energy Corporation supplies Physical Commodities such as: Crude Oil, D6, D2 Low Sulphur Diesel, Kerosene JET A1, Mazut M-100, JP54, EN590 road Diesel, LNG, LPG, D6 Bunker Fuel to the following ports:
- Shanghai, China
- Shenzhen, China
- Hong Kong, S.A.R., China
- Ningbo-Zhoushan, China
- Qingdao, China
- Guangzhou Harbor, China
- Busan, South Korea
- Tianjin, China
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Singapore
- Antwerp, Belgium
- Houston, Texas, United States of America
- Hamburg, Germany
- Felixstowe, U.K.
- Laem Chabang, Thailand
- Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Port Klang, Malaysia
- Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
- Santos, Brazil
- Manila, Philippines
- Ambarli, Turkey
- Tanger Med, Morocco
- Valencia, Spain
- Hanshin Ports, Japan
- Port Said East, Egypt
- Piraeus, Greece
- Ambarli, Turkey
- Tanjung Perak, Surabaya, Indonesia
- Salalah, Oman