by James Hamilton

Not all the malignant sloppy baloney that comes out of the lees is the same. Crass oil produced by original fields differs importantly in viscosity and sulfur tranquillity. The more viscous crudes (as stately by a cut API staidness ) are called "heavier," and those with higher sulfur fulfilled are called "acerbate" (as opposed to low-sulfur "saccharine" undeveloped). The heavier and more nasty the raw, the more knotty and up-market it is to reverse into usable noble products. The evaluation of oil you generally speaking pay attention to quoted (such as the fresh highs of $67 a barrel) is the bonus of a light, harmonious rank like West Texas Middle.

The graph at the Tory shows the prize differential (in dollars per barrel) for European Brent (a comparatively light, treasured offensive) over Mexican Maya (a heavier curt). The quotation hard to come by for light sweets had typically been about $5 a barrel up until last summer, when it began rising very soon, now stationary at triple its earlier value. To put the assay of the going round reward spread in attitude, if the guerdon of light, friendly crass had only risen as much (in dollars per barrel) as the onerous distasteful, the addition in the toll of light, stuck on unfinished during the last year would have been a third smaller than what we in reality observed.

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