Sweet Crude
Categories: Econ
See: Sour Crude.
Oh, sweet, sweet crude. Nothing goes down smoother on a hot summer day.
Actually, this one has nothing to do with how the crude oil tastes (bad, we assume). It has to do with the amount of sulfur mixed in with the crude (which probably doesn't help the taste).
The more sulfur, the trickier it is to refine the oil into the other stuff you make oil out of (gasoline, etc.). Also, refining crude with high levels of sulfur has environmental implications. As such, light, sweet crude represents the more valuable version (as opposed to sour crude, which comes with the high sulfur count). Any oil with less than 0.42% sulfur is considered "sweet." We still wouldn't recommend flavoring your coffee with it, though.
