Boscan Crude Oil assay by PDVSA

Boscan is one of the most extreme crude oils commercially produced in the world — an onshore Venezuelan extra-heavy crude defined by extraordinarily high viscosity, massive vanadium content, and ultra-low API gravity that places it at the very bottom of the crude oil quality spectrum.

Boscan's vanadium content of ~11,222 ppm is not a typo — it is one of the highest vanadium concentrations ever recorded in a commercially produced crude oil, more than 40× higher than Merey (~262 ppm) and 36× higher than Maya (~308 ppm). This makes Boscan a unique feedstock: it is entirely unsuitable for FCC or hydrocracking without extremely aggressive demetallization pre-treatment, as it would immediately destroy any conventional catalyst inventory. Paradoxically, this extreme vanadium richness also makes Boscan crude a historical feedstock for vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) recovery operations.

Read the detailed product profile here.

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