Locator: 51809B.
WTI: $91.55 -- at close last night; overnight, at the open this morning -- $93.69. Okay.
New wells reporting:
- Friday, September 25, 2026: 49 for the month, 129 for the quarter, 486 for the year,
- 41769, conf, Hess, EN-Will Trust A-157-94-2734H-5,
- 41533, conf, Devon Energy, Borsheim 33-28 4H,
- Thursday, September 24, 2026: 47 for the month, 127 for the quarter, 484 for the year,
- None.
RBN Energy: variations in crude oil quality make on-spec delivery critical for global refiners. Link here. Archived.
As anyone who has ever bought a used car knows, appearances can be deceiving. Two vehicles may look nearly identical from the outside, but what’s under the hood can make all the difference in performance, reliability and value. The same principle applies to crude oil, as barrels that meet the same basic specifications can still behave very differently once they reach a refinery. In today’s RBN blog, we conclude our look at crude quality by examining why maintaining consistent specifications has become more challenging as Permian production has grown, blending practices have evolved, and WTI Midland has become a cornerstone of global crude pricing.
As discussed in Part 1, crude oil is not a uniform commodity; each stream has a unique chemical composition that affects its value and how it performs throughout the supply chain. The two primary measures of crude quality are API gravity (density) and sulfur content. In general, crude oils above about 35 degrees (°) API are considered light (blue-shaded rows in Figure 1 below); those between roughly 25° and 35° API fall into the medium category (pink-shaded rows); and anything lower than 25° is heavy (green-shaded rows). Sweet crude has relatively little sulfur, typically less than about 0.5%, while sour crude contains more than that. Light, sweet crudes generally produce higher yields of valuable products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel with less refining, while heavier or more sulfur-rich crudes require additional processing and involve higher costs. Other quality factors — including distillation characteristics, molecular composition, carbon residue, acidity, metals and mercaptans — also influence refinery efficiency, equipment reliability, catalyst performance and overall market value.
