Crude Oil

Crude Oil Trading

Imperium Commodity Search builds and maintains relationships across the Energy sector and has an excellent network across both trading and brokerage shops covering the global crude oil space. 

Our consultants stay up to date on current events, news and price shifts in global crude and speak with oil professionals on a daily basis.  Imperium Commodity Search is well placed to assist both clients and candidates looking for growth in the crude oil markets. 

What is Crude Oil?

Crude oil is a fossil fuel composed of hydrocarbons and found beneath the earths crust.  In short, crude oil is the unrefined and raw material that goes into the production of petroleum/distillates.  Crude varies in colour dependent on viscosity and hydrocarbon content from black to yellow.  

First discovered during the industrial revolution, crude oil has become a key fuel globally and is the most important raw material that goes into powering day to day life around the world.  Crude oil is found by drilling down into the earth and is often found beneath natural gas deposits.  

Crude oil differs to many commodities in that it does not have a specific formulation or compound structure that makes it a base-level commodity.  Crude varies in content greatly between regions and sites and can be categorised in different ways dependant upon the type of crude that is being drilled. 

Crude oil is characterised primarily by the type of hydrocarbon compounds that are most prevalent.  These break down into paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics which all have their own specific application and are more important in certain distillates or products derived from crude oil.  Aromatics are important as a feedstock to the petrochemical industry with benzene being a common constituent of crude oil high in aromatics. 

Sweet vs sour crude refers to the level of sulfur (sulphur) content present.   Sweet crude oil is that which has less than 0.5% sulfur by weight and sour crude is that which has more than 1% sulfur by weight.  Heavier crude generally is more ‘sour’ than lighter crude.  

Crude oil is normally shipped via oil tankers to refineries, which process the crude, remove impurities and separate the hydrocarbons through a process of fractional distillation.  This converts crude oil into usable grades of fuel, from heavy residuals and heating fuels, gasoline and petrol, through to light ends like naphtha. 

Two common crude oil types are Brent and WTI (West Texas Intermediate) which are produced in the North Sea and America respectively.  Crude from these oil fields tends to be light and sweet in build, and thus is suitable for refining into Gasoline. 

How is Crude Oil traded? 

Crude oil is a major global commodity; traded and refined on a global scale.  There are certain trade regions and partnerships that exist in the crude markets to give regions power in global markets.  OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is the key example of this; a political tie up of 14 oil producing stats accounting for almost half of all oil production and over 80% of known reserves. 

OPEC Members (in order of production volume):