Gas Condensate (Light Field Condensate for Splitters & Petrochemical Feed)

Light, very low-sulphur field condensate bought on API, RVP, sulphur and mercury

Gas condensate is the light liquid that drops out of wet natural gas when it is cooled and depressurised at the field, and customs treat it as a crude: the heading 27.09 notes place gas condensates, the C4 to about C20 hydrocarbons recovered in stabilising natural gas, under HS 2709.00, and the EU tariff carries a separate line, 2709.00.10, for natural gas condensates. It is bought for what it distils into. A condensate cargo is mostly naphtha and light distillate, so the buyers are condensate splitter owners, refiners short of light feed and petrochemical groups feeding naphtha crackers. The named streams show the range: North West Shelf condensate, produced through Woodside's Karratha Gas Plant in Western Australia, is assessed at 63° API and 0.003% sulphur and typically loads in 650,000 or 325,000 barrel cargoes; Platts' Eagle Ford condensate assessment reflects a typical 52° API and 0.1% maximum sulphur, with Eagle Ford 45, 52 and 60 the commonly traded streams and a 60° API chemical grade published by Equinor; Malaysian condensate from Petronas is about 64° API; and Nigeria's Akpo stream assays at 45.8-46° API and 0.06% sulphur. The United States repealed its crude oil export ban in December 2015, which opened US condensate to export.

The parameters that decide a condensate cargo are API gravity and distillation profile, Reid vapour pressure (the stabilisation grade decides how it can be stored and shipped), sulphur, and mercury, because mercury in splitter and cracker feed accumulates in the plant and causes liquid metal embrittlement of aluminium exchangers; a commonly cited export limit is below 30 ppb by weight, and Intertek runs mercury speciation on refinery feedstocks. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers condensate against the producer's assay for the named stream, independent SGS or Intertek quantity and quality inspection at the load terminal, and a named charterer or buyer. Genuine condensate is sold by field operators and their offtakers as term programmes and spot cargoes out of named terminals, so an offer that names no producer or load terminal, or that runs on tank storage receipts, dip tests, SCO/ICPO/FCO sequences or advance fees, is not worked. Condensate moves as a MARPOL Annex I oil cargo in product and crude tankers on FOB and CIF terms, and prices are referenced to Platts or Argus assessments and Dated Brent differentials. Send the stream or spec range, tonnage, discharge port and laycan, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.