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What are the boiling ranges of naphtha, kerosene, and gas oil fractions from crude oil?

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Aerial view of an oil refinery complex near New Orleans, Louisiana, with storage tanks, industrial structures, and smoke rising from the facility, surrounded by open land. — petroleum refining Aerial view of an oil refinery near New Orleans.

In petroleum refining, fractional distillation is used to separate crude oil into various components based on their boiling ranges. The typical boiling ranges for these fractions are as follows:

| Fraction | Boiling Range (°C) | Boiling Range (°F) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Light straight-run naphtha | 20–95 | 70–200 |
| Heavy naphtha | 90–165 | 195–330 |
| Crude kerosene | 150–245 | 300–475 |
| Light gas oil | 215–315 | 420–600 |
| Heavy gas oil | 285–370 | 545–700 |

These ranges represent the temperatures at which these specific hydrocarbon mixtures are withdrawn as sidestreams from the fractionating column during the refining process. While kerosene is generally categorized as a middle distillate with a boiling point typically between 150 and 300 °C (300–575 °F), the specific ranges provided above reflect standard operational outputs in a refinery setting.12