do you know equilibrium in the hs chemistry? if its too hard for you as liberal artist just think of it as a certain price that oil has to got before its worth make venezuela oil
Date: October 1st, 2026 8:22 PM Author: Black turdskin party of the first part
The US Gulf in particular is extremely well suited to process Venezuelan crude. Citgo, the Venezuelan oil company, has massive refineries along the Gulf of America.
Date: October 1st, 2026 8:20 PM Author: Transparent menage
Most of Venezuela's output, especially from the Orinoco Belt, is extra-heavy, high-sulfur crude (roughly 8-16° API). Some lighter and medium grades exist, but heavy dominates. Raw Orinoco bitumen-like crude is so thick it has to be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons (naphtha or light crude) or upgraded before it can move through pipelines.
Why it's tricky for gasoline
Low natural gasoline yield. Heavy crude has a large fraction of long, heavy molecules (residuum) and relatively few light ones. A simple distillation of it yields much more fuel oil and asphalt than gasoline.
High sulfur and metals. Sulfur, nickel, and vanadium require hydrotreating and can poison catalysts, so refineries need more processing.
Conversion is required. To get gasoline out of heavy crude, refineries need "complex" units such as cokers, hydrocrackers, and fluid catalytic crackers (FCC). These break big molecules into smaller ones, and the output is then desulfurized and blended into finished gasoline.
Date: October 1st, 2026 8:24 PM Author: Black turdskin party of the first part
The United States is particularly well suited to process Venezuelan crude because many large Gulf Coast refineries were specifically designed or upgraded to handle the heavy, high-sulfur (“heavy sour”) oil characteristic of Venezuela. These sophisticated refineries have cokers, catalytic crackers, and extensive desulfurization equipment that can break heavy crude into higher-value products such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Before the U.S. shale boom, refiners invested billions of dollars in this equipment partly because they expected long-term supplies of heavy crude from Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada. The shale revolution subsequently produced enormous quantities of lighter U.S. crude, but the heavy-crude refining infrastructure remained.
CITGO’s U.S. refining system is a particularly visible legacy of that relationship: Venezuela’s state oil company built a major downstream presence in the United States to provide a reliable market for Venezuelan crude. As a result, if Venezuelan production and exports increase, the U.S. already has substantial infrastructure capable of converting those barrels efficiently into transportation fuels.