Crude Oil

Basrah Light | Basrah Medium
Commercial crude grades for refinery feedstock and downstream petroleum production

Product Overview

Basrah Light and Basrah Medium are established export crude streams marketed through Iraq’s southern export system. Both are sour crudes and are primarily purchased as refinery feedstocks. Their differing density and sulphur levels influence refinery configuration, product yields, processing severity and commercial value.

Grade	Typical API gravity	Typical Sulphur	General classification
Basrah Light	31.4° API	2.74 wt%	Light / medium-light sour crude
Basrah Medium	27.9° API	3.00 wt%	Medium sour crude

Reference quality figures are indicative published assay values and are not a cargo guarantee. Actual export quality can vary; contractual specification and an independent certificate of quality should govern each transaction.

Basrah Light

A comparatively lighter Iraqi sour crude, Basrah Light offers a higher API gravity than Basrah Medium and can provide a stronger proportion of lighter refinery fractions, subject to the full crude assay and refinery configuration.

Typical Applications

LPG and light gases

Naphtha and petrochemical feedstocks

Gasoline blending components

Jet / aviation turbine fuel components

Kerosene

Diesel / Gasoil

Fuel oil and residual streams

Base-oil, asphalt or other heavy-stream applications depending on refinery configuration

Basrah Medium

Basrah Medium is a medium sour Iraqi export grade. Compared with Basrah Light it is denser and slightly higher in sulphur, making conversion capacity, desulphurisation and residue upgrading particularly relevant to refinery economics.

Processing Profile

The grade is suited to refineries capable of handling medium sour feedstocks. Atmospheric and vacuum distillation separate the crude into boiling-range fractions; downstream conversion and treating units can then upgrade heavier fractions and reduce sulphur to meet finished-product specifications.

Typical Refinery Route

Crude reception → desalting → atmospheric distillation → vacuum distillation → conversion (for example catalytic cracking or hydrocracking) → hydrotreating / sulphur removal → blending → finished petroleum products.

From Crude Oil to End Products

RECEIPT & DESALTING

Removal of water, salts and suspended contaminants before primary processing.

DISTILLATION

Separation into gases, naphtha, kerosene, gasoil and heavier fractions according to boiling range.

CONVERSION

Heavier molecules can be upgraded through cracking, hydrocracking, coking or other refinery processes.

TREATING

Hydrotreating and related processes reduce sulphur and other impurities to meet product standards.

BLENDING & FINISHING

Refinery components are blended into commercial fuels and non-fuel petroleum products.

Major End-Use Markets

TRANSPORT
Gasoline • Diesel • Jet Fuel

PETROCHEMICALS
Naphtha • Aromatics / Alefin Feedstocks

INDUSTRY
Fuel Oils • Process Fuels

INFRASTRUCTURE
Bitumen / Asphalt Streams

Commercial & Quality Considerations

Cargo-specific quality

Inspection

Logistics

Commercial documentation

Technical note:
Published reference values used in this brochure include Basrah Light 31.4° API / 2.74% sulphur and Basrah Medium 27.9° API / 3.0% sulphur. These are indicative market/assay references, not an offer, warranty or guaranteed cargo specification.

Image note:
Crude-oil sample visual is an original illustrative graphic. For client-facing publication, a CC0 photographic crude-oil sample from Wikimedia Commons can also be substituted.