24
votes
Accepted
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
As Solar Mike's answer says, crude oil is viscous - too viscous to easily pump.
Crude oil has a "pour point:" the lowest temperature where it will flow under gravity.
Heating the crude oil keeps ...
9
votes
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
There are so many misrepresentations in the references it is difficult to answer. Basically, crude oil in tankers is not heated. If viscosity is too high for effective pumping, the most likely action ...
- 6,182
6
votes
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
Others here have covered why tankers get heated. A related topic is why salt caverns and other deep underground storage are not heated. It's not that they can't be heated - it's that they don't need ...
- 161
5
votes
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
They heat the oil to make it easier to pump for off-loading otherwise it is too viscous.
- 16k
4
votes
Accepted
Why Not Refine Crude Oil At Source
Some places, like the North Slope of Alaska, are inhospitable to the construction of refineries. It is cheaper and more convenient in this case to transport the crude to a distant refinery via a ...
- 15.3k
4
votes
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
Re. 'maintains its quality' aka, the good stuff.
What is the most important source of natural gas? Coal, oil or other?
"Above the maximum temperature the oil is converted to natural gas through the ...
- 141
4
votes
Accepted
Diesel or Gasoline? Which one is more dangerous to our health?
1) In an engineering context efficiency has a very specific meaning ie it is the ratio between the energy you put into a system and the useful work that you get out. In itself this doesn't tell you ...
- 15.3k
3
votes
Why is "regular" gasoline standard instead of something more knock-resistant?
Well first and foremost, refiners are a business so they must make the decisions that make them the most money. Considering this, lets think about cracking and isomerization via catalysis. The refiner ...
- 605
3
votes
Does the shape of a car really matter for how much gasoline it drinks?
The difference is in the drag coefficient.
Typical drag coefficient of the 50's cars have been in the range of 0.38 to 0.42 or so.
typical drag coefficient of modern cars even the ones not renowned ...
- 22.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Basic Drilling/Production/Reservoir Engineering Terms
There are a number of online reference. I entered "dictionary oil terms" into a search engine & came up with these as an example:
The Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary
Glossary of Oil and Gas Terms ...
- 9,752
2
votes
Flaring System in Industries
There are 2 general reasons for flaring; In a refinery or chemical plant for safety and at well site for economics - subject to Dept of Interior rules. Refineries and chemical plants have a large ...
- 6,182
2
votes
Diesel or Gasoline? Which one is more dangerous to our health?
My understanding:
Petrol engines produce far more carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless and highly toxic gas. This makes running petrol engines indoors far more dangerous than ...
- 189
2
votes
Accepted
Do sea oil platforms use the oil they extract to power their engines?
Platforms are weight and space limited so there is generally no room for processing( and processing will require more crew and their facilities). Gas, oil and water are usually separated, often it is ...
- 6,182
2
votes
Accepted
Is oil collapsing
This is an interesting subject, although its mostly an opinion rather that anything else.
TL;DR: Oil industry is certainly facing challenges and its probably on its way out, but there still a long way ...
- 24.3k
2
votes
Why do oil tankers heat crude oil?
Because the ocean can be very cold
As MartyMcGyver discusses, underground storage does not need to be heated. Tankers, however, are sitting in water, which (apart from the salt) has the highest ...
2
votes
"Vented loop" in fuel reservoir overflow line
It put the max liquid line higher. With the elbow the liquid has to reach to the elbow instead of just the hole in the wall.
The hole itself cannot be put at that height because that's where the roof ...
- 6,281
1
vote
Plug valve problem
If the plug (or any other type) valve is full bore the pig should pass. Full bore valves are common in oil production , well head valves in particular are full bore. There are many types of pigs your ...
- 6,182
1
vote
What are some technical problems with generating electricity using a gas turbine or combustible engine at a gas flaring site?
It is less economical to harness this energy/materials. From the perspective of the company, money is better spent on their immediate business needs such as locating large resources or improving the ...
- 8,285
1
vote
What are some technical problems with generating electricity using a gas turbine or combustible engine at a gas flaring site?
I think this is a situation of "the devil is in the details', and of course, cost. In the US, gas from a few wells would not likely be of sufficient volume; but several/many wells could be ...
- 6,182
1
vote
What would be a reasonable estimate for the amount of petroleum needed to find, produce and deliver one barrel of petroleum?
A recent paper seems to provide an answer: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354885905_Peak_oil_and_the_low-carbon_energy_transition_A_net-energy_perspective
There is an interesting graph, ...
- 119
1
vote
Accepted
Why do 58% of domestic crude produced in PADD III and 55% of net crude imports also go to PADD III imply that crude oil must move out of PADD III?
The total crude throughput is domestic production plus net crude imports.
All of the crude gets refined.
So if 49% of the total crude is refined in PADD III, and more than 49% of domestic production ...
- 5,105
1
vote
Why do 58% of domestic crude produced in PADD III and 55% of net crude imports also go to PADD III imply that crude oil must move out of PADD III?
I worked in petroleum my whole career and never heard this bureaucratic double speak - PADD. No real world implication, just a mechanism to justify some bureaucratic salaries.Oil is relatively ...
- 6,182
1
vote
Why is "regular" gasoline standard instead of something more knock-resistant?
Depending on where you are, "regular" automotive fuel is anything between 85 and 95. However a number of, say, 95, does not mean it's a mixture of 95% octane and 5% heptane. It merely means that the ...
1
vote
Oil recovery by thermal expansion of rock
Directionally, yes. Treat it exactly like a compressibility term in the material balance equation (pressure drop and temperature rise both cause the grain material to expand). Second-order effects ...
- 121
1
vote
Crude Oil Velocity Flow Within Rock-Soil Matrix
Think in order of magnitude terms of inter-well spacing (500 metres in an offshore waterflood?) divided by water breakthrough time (say, 3 years). 500m/1000 days = 0.5 metres per day. Yes, I know a ...
- 121
1
vote
Accepted
What are air barrels (with regards to oil pipelines) and why are they a problem?
Air barrel means oil pipeline capacity which is booked or contracted by an oil company while they already know they can not deliver that volume of oil. Basically they over book the line.
Alberta ...
- 22.8k
1
vote
Accepted
What is the use of a " by pass "
“By-pass” generally means to take an alternative path or route around something, so could be a village or a valve or a flow meter.
Sometimes meters have a by-pass arrangement with 3 valves so that ...
- 16k
1
vote
Accepted
Oil refinery pipeline direct to gas stations
To begin with, gas/petrol filling stations may or may not be located at one site for a long period of time. Dealing with a disused pipeline for a closed station will be a problem. Continually ...
- 9,752
1
vote
Which plastics dissolve in petroleum?
There is a wide world of plastics, and a wider world of corrosive fluids to pit them against. Then within each plastic are different resins, brands, each with unique manufacturing methods. Some ...
- 5,333
1
vote
Measuring the temperature of gasoline while conducting experiments over a temperature range
A thermistor will work fine. Most are epoxy dipped, and your test is for a relatively short period of time. A theromcouple would work well also, but they take more supporting electronics for signal ...
- 8,285
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