Detail
Kuito is one of several recently-discovered heavy crude oils from offshore Angola, with low sulfur and an excellent yield of vacuum gas oil. Middle distillates have excellent fluidity properties while naphtha is excellent as reformer feed.

The value of Kuito is maximized when it is refined with other crude oils, especially sour paraffinic crude oils such as Arabian Light. In such a blend, the fuel oil sulfur of the Middle East crude will be significantly reduced because of Kuito crude oil's significantly lower sulfur content while middle distillate yields will be maximized due to the excellent pour and freeze characteristics in Kuito.

Kuito is compatible with most other crude oils. For example, tests indicate that there are no compatibility issues when Kuito is blended with Arabian Light. Specific compatibility information for Kuito blended with other crude oils is available by contacting one of the equity partners.

Refining Acid Crudes
Kuito has significantly more acid than other West African crude oils. Refiners will really maximize the value of Kuito when refining it as a complement with a high sulfur, sour, paraffinic crude oil such as Arabian Light. High acid content in a crude oil typically can be mitigated by one of three methods:

Diluting by blending it with low acid crude oils to decrease the overall acid content in the crude and vacuum gas oil streams. The dilution process for blends is normally linear.

Adding chemicals to mitigate the acid level in the crude oil. Proven corrosion control systems available from internationally-recognized chemical vendors may be used.

Upgrading the refinery metallurgy to handle high acid crude oils.

Naphtha
Easily reformed, Kuito gives high yields across the reformer. The small amount of light naphtha in the crude can be blended to gasoline with minimal treatment.

Middle Distillates
With excellent pour and freeze characteristics, Kuito is a good crude oil for blending with crude oils whose salable distillates are limited by fluidity but have burning quality and gravity giveaway. Kuito is an excellent complement in such a mix, thereby increasing middle distillate yield destined for jet and diesel fuel use.

Vacuum Gas Oil
Kuito produces a high yield of vacuum gas oil, which is suitable for refineries with hydrocracking facilities and fluidized catalytic crackers which can produce incremental high value transportation fuels by cracking the vacuum gas oil. The low sulfur of the FCC feed (0.6 wt %) minimizes the need for hydrotreating.

Fuel Oil
Kuito is a sweet crude oil with the capability of producing low sulfur fuel oil with straight run vacuum resid and cutter.