These facilities have a larger capacity to process heavy crude, cracking the heavy components into lighter streams. More complex refineries, commonly referred to as high-conversion refineries, have the ability to process heavier feedstock, with higher concentrations of sulphur and nitrogen. In order for bitumen to be sold to a simple refinery, it must first be upgraded into a lighter crude oil.
Bitumen produced from the oil sands would be too heavy and too sour for a simple refinery. Simple refineries can only process light crude feedstock with a low sulphur content. Depending on the type, capacity and configuration of process equipment, each refinery has a limited ability to handle heavy grades of crude, with high concentrations of sulphur and other impurities.
Refineries typically blend different grades of crude feedstock with varying quality specifications, but not all refineries are built the same. The future of upgrading likely lies in partial upgrading, where heavy oil is transformed just enough to reduce diluent requirements, lowering transportation costs and improving netbacks. The economics of upgrading depends on the required product quality, the needs of the final customer, and the price differential between heavy/sour and light/sweet crude.ĭue to high capital costs and strong demand for heavy crude, Alberta's upgrading capacity is unlikely to keep up with growing production from the oil sands. SCO sells at a wide premium to diluted bitumen, typically close to par with WTI. SCO is much better in quality than diluted bitumen and even slightly better than conventional light/sweet crude due to its low sulphur and heavy metals content. Fractionation or cracking of heavy oil into light oilĪbout 35% of Alberta's bitumen, mostly sourced from mined oil sands, is upgraded into light/sweet synthetic crude (SCO) before being sold to downstream refineries.H:C ratio upgrading through hydrogen addition or carbon rejection.Bitumen upgraders have 5 basic unit operations: Upgrading is a process by which bitumen is transformed into light oil by fractionation and chemical treatment, removing virtually all traces of sulphur and heavy metals.
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