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Both involve heating organic materials in a vacuum until they break down into carbon and vapors that can be condensed into a low-grade fuel oil.
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Much of Venezuelan oil is also heavy oil, which is a lower grade.
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Recent bidding rounds have attracted lucrative offers from scores of foreign firms, not surprising since Libyan oil tends to be high-grade and cheap to produce, and only a quarter of the country has been explored.
ECONOMIST: Libya
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Repriced gas has promoted an awareness that shallower wells are more likely to produce higher grade hydrocarbons which can sell for prices closer to that of oil.
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However, with the increasing difficulties of dealing with a Central Bank under sanctions, even countries sympathetic to the Syrian regime have been unwilling to go through so much trouble just to acquire Syrian oil, which, to boot, is mostly a low-grade crude needing special refineries.
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But any extra Saudi oil released now will be too late in arriving and too heavy a grade to keep America's drivers happy.
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It found a good supply of medium-grade crude but had to shut in the well for lack of a pipeline to get the oil to market.
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The solution to this is free trade in crude oil: some portion of US production should be shipped abroad and replaced with crude of a different grade to make up that optimal mixture.
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