An anhydrous denatured aliphatic alcohol intended for gasoline blending as described in oxygenates definition.
Illegal practice where a floor broker executes an order for his own account before executing an order for a customer, with the intent of getting ahead of a market move precipitated by the customer’s order. A broker who went long 10 contracts of December crude just before he executed a buy order for 500 contracts would be “front-running.” The audit trail,
Represents input of material (crude oil, unfinished oils, natural gas liquids, other hydrocarbons and oxygenates or finished products) to processing units at a refinery that is being processed (input) into a particular unit for the first time. Examples:
- Unfinished oils coming out of a crude oil distillation unit which are input into a catalytic cracking unit are considered fresh feed to the catalytic cracking unit.
- Unfinished oils coming out of a catalytic cracking unit being looped back into the same catalytic cracking unit to be reprocessed are not considered fresh feed.
The different cuts of petroleum products that come off a distillation column contingent on their volatility or boiling range. Fractions are essentially crude cut points at different boiling ranges that produce the various finished products.
A processing plant that separates hydrocarbon mixtures based on the vapor pressures of its component molecules, either by adding heat (distillation) or removing heat (condensation); products such as propane, butane, and ethane are produced in this process.
Cash market (non-exchange) commitment to delivery of petroleum products or crude at a set price for futur e delivery (i.e. a fixed price contract).
The legal cancellation of a delivery obligation due to the occurrence of natural acts beyond the direct control of the seller (i.e. operating problems with tankers or refineries or weather disruptions).
Terms of a transaction where the seller agrees to make the product available within an agreed-upon time period at a given location. Any subsequent costs are the responsibility of the buyer.
A thermal cracking process utilizing the fluidized-solids technique to remove carbon (coke) for continuous conversion of heavy, lowgrade oils into lighter products.
An oil refining unit in which a catalyst combines with a vacuum gas oil range feedstock at high temperatures to cause a reaction. This is the most popular design for catalytic cracking in a refinery, and it produces mostly gasoline and some distillate products.