Information update on Azeri crude oil quality (ex.

Ceyhan)
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This note seeks to update Azeri customers on the expected quality of the crude oil exported from the BTC pipeline at Ceyhan. There have recently been a number of temporary changes caused by the recent partial shutdown of the Azeri field within the ACG complex. 1. The West Azeri platform has returned to normal production and this means that two of the three platforms serving the Azeri field are now operational. The re-start of Azeri West has meant that the quality of the exported oil from Ceyhan is now much closer to normal. 2. The assay posted on this website shows a crude with an API of 36.7degrees, a sulphur level of 0.16%wt, and an acid number of 0.34 mgKOH/gm. Quality has stabilised at these values and will not be materially affected on the key properties for refiners of sulphur and acidity when Central Azeri restarts and the field returns to full production. Q: Why has the acidity of Ceyhan liftings been higher than this recently? A: All the ACG fields are similar in quality but Chirag and Deepwater Guneshli crudes have a slightly higher acidity than Azeri crude. The production problem on the Azeri field resulted in the temporary shutdown of the Azeri Central and the Azeri West platforms and reduced the output from the Azeri East platform. The loss of lower acidity volumes from the combined ACG stream caused the acidity in the exported crude to rise to approximately 0.5mgKOH/gm temporarily. This was communicated in our quality update issued here on the 7th October. The progressive restart of the Azeri system (West Azeri already restarted) has rapidly caused the acidity to fall to slightly in excess of 0.3 mgKOH/gm consistent with the quality before the partial shutdown . The temporary higher acidity had nothing to do with Tengiz as some market reporting has suggested. Q: The inclusion of Tengiz causes a rise in Mercaptans. Will refineries experience quality problems? A: Tengiz meets the BTC entry specification for mercaptans. At the refinery, hydrotreatment removes mercaptans and would have had to be used for refiners processing significant volumes of Azeri even prior to the limited entry of Tengiz: Gasoline - In the EU and USA, the sulphur spec is 10ppm. Most gasoline is made from upgraded distillates and very little from straight-run blended naphtha. To upgrade the naphtha octane, it is first hydrotreated which will remove the sulphur compounds including mercaptans. Jet - Limit on Jet A1 is 30ppm mercaptans. The old Azeri quality (pre the limited inclusion of Tengiz) had 14ppm mercaptans in the jet cut so could meet this specification. However, the acidity in the kerosene distillate restricted using large volumes of straight run Azeri kerosene as part of a blend to make jet fuel. Refiners can either hydrotreat the jet cut or merox (mercaptan oxidation) the stream to meet the jet fuel acidity and mercaptans specifications. Diesel - As per gasoline the spec is 10ppm sulphur. Hydrotreating will remove the mercaptans from the gasoil stream. BP as operator of BTC is happy to try to answer individual questions on the future Azeri quality. Please contact BP via the contact details provided on this site. __________________ 20th November 2008