AM-15-38 Continuous Corrosion Monitoring

Description:

We are presently operating in a time of very high crude price volatility. This is driving an unusual level of variation in refining margins, making accurate crude selection and profit maximisation from crude slate optimisation difficult. Crude purchase lead times of many weeks mean that crude selection decisions made earlier may no longer be the most economic - and crude may be switched "on the water" and substituted for another grade of, sometimes, markedly different quality to fit better with the current market conditions. Flexibility in the range of crudes that can be accepted by a refinery is paramount for maximising profitability, and, in some regions, is key for the ongoing survival of the facility itself. Many of the lower cost crudes on the market - the so called "opportunity crudes" - are priced at a discount against the marker crudes because of their difficult processing properties - most notably, their corrosiveness, measured by the TAN (Total Acid Number), which is the laboratory test method used to characterise crudes that are prone to causing naphthenic acid corrosion.