Quality of crude oil – it’s not just sulphur and API

• Most traders use sulphur and API to classify crude types but from a refinery point of view, this grossly oversimplifies the way the crude is evaluated for fit for use in their configuration

• Some very important qualities often overlooked by traders are the nitrogen, total acid number (TAN) and metals content. Nitrogen, vanadium and nickel content affect catalyst activity; while pipeline metallurgy has to cater for a higher TAN (i.e. carbon steel pipelines may corrode quickly if exposed to a higher TAN crude).
• Middle Eastern crude which is what most Asian refineries are designed for, generally have lower nitrogen, TAN and metals content than LATAM, WAF and Canadian alternatives.
• Additionally, some of these Middle Eastern crudes have superior quality for making baseoil and bitumen. Oman has elevated TAN and poor bitumen qualities compared to Upper Zakum.

• This could explain why some refineries are reportedly willing to pay up for Upper Zakum at OSP+20$/bbl instead of taking Brent-linked alternatives.

About the Author
June is a senior oil market analyst at Sparta specialising in global crude trade flows and refining economics across Asia and Europe. Her analysis is regularly cited by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and Reuters. With a significant following in the energy community on X (@JuneGoh_Sparta), June’s insights are a staple for institutional traders navigating regional market shifts.
Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaik-june-goh-26b42663/ / https://x.com/JuneGoh_Sparta

About Sparta

Founded in 2020, Sparta made waves in the commodity analytics space in March 2022 when it secured a $6m series A investment from Singular. This success then later snowballed into a further $17.5 million in a series A funding round led by the technology venture capital firm FirstMark, with participation from existing shareholder, Singular.

The platform, created by former traders Miles Moseley and Felipe Elink Schuurman, is designed to answer a common problem shared by most traders: 90% of pricing data required to make trading decisions is kept in silos and shared manually by voice, email, or chat.

Sparta breaks these existing data silos and combines the physical and paper markets to provide traders with live access to global raw prices, from futures and swaps to forward freight and physical premiums. We work with clients globally, including Philips 66, Chevron, Trafigura, Equinor and more.