The US won't attack because their oil is of very poor quality?

Discussion in 'Economics' started by crgarcia, Feb 10, 2008.

  1. "Sour" oil instead of the conventional light sweet crude; containing lots of sulfur compounds, it even smells.

    Sour oil is hard (and expensive) to refine.
    Thus, we wont invade Iran?
    What for?, to get crappy, hard to refine, even harder to sell oil?

    Of course Iran sell their oil in any currency they can, few countries can refine it.
     
  2. CR

    First of all, you should go to wikipedia and type in "sour crude oil."

    You may be surprised to see some very familiar names as major sour crude oil producers.

    Second, in 2002, Venezuela - a major producer of sour crude - had a strike and their sour barrels were basically off of the market. This resulted in a 35% increase for crude prices.

    You are right that sour crude is not as preferable as sweet crude - but the market accounts for that by discounting sour crude vs. the sweet crude oil price.

    Do not confuse "not as preferred" with "irrelevant" - they do not mean the same thing.

    Last, in a pinch, refineries can be upgraded to deal with sour crude.

    So, IF (emphasis on the "IF") ... IF an administration was willing to go to war for oil - they would not ignore Iran just because of the sulphur issue.

    More info for you ...

    http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/feature_articles/2003/venezuelan/vzimpacts.htm
     
  3. toc

    toc

    US has no justified reason to invade Iran. More so when CIA has given their nuke program a clean approval.

    US needs to focus on its inner matters. In ten years we will have more alternative fuel technologies available that oil will only be an alternative to those who want to cling on to their old cars and SUVs.
     
  4. i thought all of Iran's oil went to China and Europe....

    alternate fuels have poorer thermodynamics than sweet or sour crude......

    and ethanol is a complete scam....
     
  5. toc

    toc

    Does anyone know that

    'Body heat emitted by each human being, each hour can bring to boil, a whole half a gallon of water'.
     
  6. selecto

    selecto Guest

  7. Yeah, in 'The Matrix' the machines use Human body heat and electrical activity as an energy source.
     
  8. freonguy

    freonguy

    I'm not familiar with the quality of Iranian crude. In addition to being sour, Venezuelan crude is very heavy. It has alot of parefin wax and heavy hydrocarbons which require specialized refining equipment (see citgo)