Olefinic compounds have the potential to be disruptive to the refining process - including crude heater and preheat train fouling, hydrogen make shortfalls, straight run distillate stability, among others. Crudes from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) contain very minute amounts to no olefinic compounds in native production. In 2005, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) passed a resolution prohibiting the introduction of olefinic streams into the WCSB pool of crudes to protect the intrinsic value of WCSB production. Random testing is conducted on all of the market level streams to ensure that they remain olefin free. Listed below are the streams that have been tested in accordance with the CAPP guidelines. The term "olefins free" indicates that the results were below the minimum detection level of the test procedure..

• Olefinic material shall not be added to or blended with conventional crude oil streams, condensate streams or accepted as diluent for heavy crude oil or bitumen. The test method to determine the presence of olefinic material is the Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (HNMR) test.
• The HNMR test will replace the FIA test as the recommended test for olefin detection. A test result that is greater than 1.0% olefins by mass as 1-decene equivalent indicates the presence of olefinic material and requires immediate retest for verification.
• Repeated excursions (i.e. 2 successive excursions) will result in the stream being excluded from the conventional pool until compliance can be demonstrated. The 1.0% is not to be considered an upper limit, rather an indicator that olefinic material is present. The specification objective is zero.
• Note: Examples of olefinic material include, but are not limited to: untreated cracked material, untreated coker by-products, olefin plant by-products and cat cracked stocks.

© 2005/06 CrudeMonitor.ca All rights reserved.