HEAVYCRUDES CHARACTERISTICS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO JODHPUR CRUDE OIL

Heavy crudes reserves are increasing day by day whereas petroleum industry and refiners arefacing problems to drill, treat and process heavy crudes forproducing products that are environmentally acceptable and to provide a new source of feed for secondary conversion processes and upgra~ing. The availability of heavy crude in India isinsignificant and the currently available heavy crudes in the western and eastern regions are blended with other light and medium gravity crudes before processing. Jodhpur crude found in the Bikanar- Nagaur basin of Rajasthan is one of the heaviest, most viscous crude with high salt content, acid value, low wax, highest sulphur, asphaltenes, conradson carbon residue etc ever found in any Indian crudes before. The present article describes crude assay data and problems anticipated in transportation and processing of the crude oil