An oil refinery is planned be built in China to handle Venezuelan heavy crude from the Orinoco basin.

Fluid coking is a process which converts heavy residual crude into lighter products such as naphtha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases.

This discovery relieved Syria of the need to import light oil to mix with domestic heavy crude in refineries.

Citgo's profits could have been squeezed by a long disruption in shipments of the heavy Venezuelan crude to which its refineries are geared.

The plan contained no provisions for the long-term clean-up that would have been necessary if the tanker had been carrying heavier crude.

That spill left 11 million gallons of the heavy crude along 1,000 miles of the coast.

With a specific gravity of greater than 1, extra heavy crude is present as a dense non-aqueous phase liquid in ambient conditions.

On the other hand heavy crude is better source for road asphalt mixes than light crude.

He added that the heavy, high-sulfur crude in the reserve can be difficult to refine, and that the condition of pipes and pumps is questionable.

Venezuela has historically produced low-value high-sulfur heavy crude from the nation's western region.