In this work, a novel procedure is developed to determine the amount of salt for crude oils in which the available laboratory techniques are unable to provide accurate salt content values. The technique is based on measuring the salinity of the wash water that is vigorously mixed with the crude oil (forming an emulsion) and then separating it from the water-in-oil emulsion by irradiating microwave energy during few minutes. This three step process involves the emulsification of the wash water exempt of salt in crude oil, followed by the recovery of the water by microwave heating and, finally, the analysis of the salt content using the classical Mohr's method titration procedure. The novel technique presented here was able to provide reliable information about the salt content on Brazilian crude oils, in a rapid manner, without need of unsafe time-consuming solvent extraction procedures. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.