Ghana is looking for a unique brand name for its crude oil in line with international practice where producing countries have branded produce in distinctive ways to attract premium prices. Some of the band names are Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Minas (Indonesia) Saharan Blend (Algeria), Tijuana Light (Venezuela), Fateh (Dubai) and Boney Light (Nigeria). Others are the Brent Blend family which includes Brend Crude, Brent Sweet Light Crude, Oseburg and Forties all drilled from the North Sea alongside Western Europe. Edward Bawa, Spokesperson for the Minister of Energy, told the Ghanaian Times newspaper that Ghana needed to brand its crude ahead of production expected to start in the last quarter of this year. He said Ghana’s Light Sweet Crude from the Jubilee field was of the highest quality and “needs to be given a unique name that can be associated with Ghana”. Mr. Bawa said light crude was more expensive than heavier and sourer crude because it cost less to process and had by-products such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. He cited Brent Bland which is one of the main types of crude often used to price and to set benchmark for the grades of crude found in other parts of the world and said; “ours is of a quality that is comparable to the Brent Blend or could be of higher quality than that”. Shedding light on how crude is graded, he said , crude quality was measured in terms of density (light or heavy) and sulfur content (sweet or sour). Sweet crude is oil with sulfur content which is less than 0.5 per cent while sour crude has higher percentage of sulfur content with more than the 0.5 per cent. The differences in properties determine how it is refined and transported throughout pipelines. “The variations may even influence its suitability for certain products and the quality of those products,” Mr. Bawa said. However, he said since Ghana’s oil was of premium quality and could not be refined locally, the government intended to export its share of the crude from the Jubilee field and import other crude oil which could be refined here. Source: Ghanaian Times