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

S0300-A6-MAN-060Table 2-1. Characteristics of Some Hydrocarbons Found in Crude Oil.COMPOUNDCARBONNUMBERBOILINGPOINT (°F)SPECIFICGRAVITYSOLUBILITY IN WATEREthycyclopentane 7 218.30 0.763Ethylcyclohexane 8 269.24 0.788Trimethycyclohexane 9 286.16 0.777AromaticsBenzene 6 176.18 0.879 820 ppm (71.6°F)Toluene 7 231.08 0.866 470 ppm (60.8°F)Ethylbenzene 8 277.16 0.867 140 ppm (59.0°F)p-Xylene 8 281.12 0.861m-Xylene 8 282.38 0.864 about 80 ppmO-Xylene 8 291.92 0.874iso-Propylbenene (Cumene) 9 306.32 0.864n-Propylbenzene 9 318.56 0.862 60 ppm (59.0°F)Napththalene 10 424.22 1.145 about 20 ppm2-Methylnaphthalene 11 465.98 1.0291-Methylnaphthalene 11 472.64 1.029Dimethylnaphthalene 12 503.60 1.016Trimethylnaphthalene 13 545.00 1.01Anthracene 14 669.20 1.25Source: Nelson-Smith, 1973The primary oil producing areas of the world are certain areas of North America, northern SouthAmerica, North Africa and the Middle East, the Caspian Sea region, the North Sea and to lesserdegrees, continental Europe and the Malayan region. Because the U.S. is a net importer of oil,ship casualties, terminal accidents or pipeline ruptures in U.S. waters can spill oil from almostanywhere in the world.It is customary to characterize crude oils by their area of production and producing fields by theoil they yield. These characterizations are roughly accurate so long as oil is produced from formationsof the same depth and geologic age. Wells producing from different depths may yield verydifferent crudes even though they are not widely separated. No firm rule can be stated, but it isapproximately true that geologically younger crudes-usually those produced from shallower formations-arehigher in sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen content, are more likely to be asphaltic and aremore likely to oxidize when exposed to the air. Crude oils from deep, presumably older formationsare more likely to be paraffinic. Crude oils lying in the presence of hydrocarbon gases indeep formations may be essentially colorless and much less dense than the normal darkly pig-2-6