U.S. Navy Ship Salvage Manual Volume 6 - Oil Spill Response

S0300-A6-MAN-060F-3.1.5 Alaska. Alaska’s primary oil production areas are the North Slope, including offshorefields in the Beaufort Sea and the areas in and around Prince William Sound in Southern Alaska.North Slope oil transmitted by pipeline and locally produced oil are fed to a large terminal facilityat Valdez at the head of Prince William Sound. North Slope oil tends to be heavy, of paraffinicaromaticbase. Total percentage of paraffins and aromatics in a crude oil may exceed 90 percent.Light fractions typically account for less than 20 percent of the total volume. Sulfur content isusually about 1 percent.Southern Alaska crudes, from the Cook Inlet area, are somewhat lighter than North Slope crudes,with light ends making up 20 to 40 percent of the total volume. Viscosity and pour point are lowand sulfur content is extremely low, often less than 0.01 percent.F-3.1.6 Rocky Mountain. Crudes produced in the Rocky Mountain region are either fairly intermediatecrudes or black oils with high sulfur content. Wax content is high and the waxes haveunusually high melting points. Gasoline and naphtha content of the intermediate crudes may runas high as 40 percent.F-3.1.7 Mexico. Mexican crudes are typically heavy, asphaltic, high in sulfur and low in gasolinecontent. The northern Panuco area, near Tampico, yields oil with specific gravity of about 0.972,sulfur content about 5 percent and gasoline content of 5 to 10 percent. The Tuxpan fields, 50 to100 miles south of Tampico, yield similar but less asphaltic oil with lower sulfur content (about3.5 percent) and slightly higher gasoline content (up to 15 percent). Crudes from both Tuxpan andPanuco fields have pour points of about 40°F. The Poza Rica and Tehuantepec fields producelighter crudes (specific gravity about 0.85) with lighter color, less asphalt and lower sulfur content.F-3.1.8 Michigan. Michigan crudes are of a paraffin-intermediate type, i.e., the lighter fractionsare paraffinic and the heavier fractions naphtenic. The nonvolatile residuum is to asphaltic forlubricant production. The gasoline content of about 25 percent is extremely paraffinic, leading toa low octane number.F-3.1.9 Canada. Canadian oil production is centered chiefly in Alberta, extending intoSaskatchewan, although some oil is produced in New Brunswick and Ontario and offshore fieldsin the Beaufort Sea and off the east coast. The Alberta fields initially produced primarily naturalgas and light hydrocarbons (distillate fields), but later production included intermediate base oilswith a significant wax content, up to 40-percent gasoline and about 0.5 percent sulfur. In general,oil from newer, interior fields resembles Mid-Continent crude. Offshore oil from the Beaufort Seais similar to oil from Alaska’s North Slope.F-3.2 South America. Venezuela is the principal producer of petroleum in South America, withsmall quantities produced in Columbia Peru, Argentina and Trinidad. Most of the Venezuelanfields are near Lake Maracaibo. The fields immediately adjoining Lake Maricaibo produce crudesvery similar to those from the San Joaquin valley in California, while those in eastern Venezuelayield oils resembling the California coastal crudes.F-9