Processing shale oils in FCC: Challenges and opportunities.

The article offers an analysis of a representative Bakken shale oil and its fractions, compared to a typical Mid-Continent vacuum gasoil (VGO) in order to determine the implications of shale oil in refineries. It discusses how optimize operations and maximize fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) value. Shale oil is said to make up only a percentage of the total feedstock in a refinery.