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Oil and Gas Security
Published in Maria G. Burns, Managing Energy Security, 2019
Heavy crude oil is any liquid hydrocarbon with an API gravity below 22.3° and viscosity of at least 100 or 200 centipoise (cp). Its chemical composition is classified from oil that flows on its own, to bitumen, tar sands, and “ultra heavy oil” that is essentially integrated in sand. Due to its high viscosity, the oil cannot pass smoothly from wells to pipelines under typical reservoir environments.
Downstream Processing of Heavier Petroleum Fractions
Published in Prasenjit Mondal, Ajay K. Dalai, Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources, 2017
Shubham Saroha, Prasenjit Mondal, Deepak Tandon
Heavy crude oil is thicker with an American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity of less than 20°, more resistant to flow, and usually contains higher levels of sulfur and other contaminants than light crude oil. It gives more residues after the processing of crude oil from the vacuum distillation unit than light crude oil. According to the density, heavy crudes can be classified as heavy oils (API within 10°–20°) and extra heavy oils (API < 10°) (Manning and Thompson 1995). The in situ viscosity makes the distinction between extra heavy oils and bitumen. It is reported that during the past 15 years (2001–2015), the demand for petroleum products has grown with a rate of ~1.7% per annum, which is also expected to continue over the next 15 years (Hedrick and Seibert 2006)(Web 1). Further, the supplies of light crudes have diminished in recent years, whereas global heavy oil consumption is increasing gradually, and it is predicted to continue until 2030 (World Energy Outlook 2008). Therefore, both the heavy crude oil containing 40%–64% residues and the nondistillable heavy residues produced from it attract strong interest from the refiners to produce valuable products (Speight 2000; Marafi et al. 2010).
Study on Heat Self-generated Mixed-gas Assisted Steam Huff-n-Puff for Enhance Heavy Oil Recovery
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2022
Qin Guowei, Wu Mei, Li Wenfang, Qin Wenlong, You Qing, Jin Wenbo
The heavy crude oil resources are richer than those of conventional crude oil, and its distribution in the oil country is very wide (Tayfun 2017; Yu 2001; Zhang 2015), which determines that the heavy crude oil may become one of the main energy sources in the future (Tayfun 2017; Wu, Xu, and Fan 2010; Xu et al. 2014; Zen et al. 2006). In view of the characteristics of heavy crude oil itself (i.e., high viscosity and poor fluidity), its main production mode is thermal recovery, which mainly includes steam huff-n-puff, steam flooding, steam-assisted gravity drainage, in-situ combustion, and so on. Specifically, steam huff-puff is the most important way to produce heavy crude oil (Yu 2001; Wu, Xu, and Fan 2010; Xu et al. 2014). In China, about 80% of the heavy crude oil production is obtained by steam huff-n-puff technology (Zhang 2015).
An experimental design approach investigating the effects of operating variables on the viscosity of heavy crude oil-in-water emulsions using lecithin as a natural surfactant
Published in Petroleum Science and Technology, 2021
Qais Bu-Ali, Zainab Mohammed Redha, Mustafa Jung, Hisham Abdulla, Ozair Ahmed
A significant increase in the production of heavy crude oil is expected in the near future, due to the depletion of the conventional oil reservoirs as a consequence of the continuous increase in the world energy demand (de la Cruz-Parejas et al. 2021; Dehaghani and Badizad 2016). These reservoirs account for around 80% of the current petroleum resources (Dehaghani and Badizad 2016). Such heavy crude oils have viscosities higher than 1,000 cP at 25 °C and American Petroleum Institute gravity unit API less than 22.3 (Sivasakthi 2018) or lower than 20 (Lee and Babadagli 2020). Others define heavy oil with an API gravity lower than 20 and/or viscosity higher than 100 cP (de la Cruz-Parejas et al. 2021; Zou 2017). However, with such high viscosities, the production and transportation of the heavy crude impose great challenges on the petroleum industries (Kumar and Singh 2021). Thus, transporting it through pipelines from the reservoir to the refinery requires reducing its viscosity (Kumar and Mahto 2017). Several approaches have been reported for the reduction of heavy crude oil viscosities to facilitate its transportation. These mainly involve altering the crude oil temperature and pour point, diluting the crude oil with lighter additives, or emulsion formation (Souas, Safri, and Benmounah 2021).
Synthesis of sawdust carbon supported nickel nanoparticles and its application in upgrading heavy crude oil
Published in Petroleum Science and Technology, 2021
Yi-Tang Zhong, Xiao-Dong Tang, Jing-Jing Li, Guang-Fu Qin, Cheng-Xin Xiang
The excessive exploitation and use of light oil have led to the fact that light oil resources are less and less able to satisfy the requirements of increasing energy in the last few decades. Heavy crude oil is a typical unconventional energy resource, which constitutes approximately 70% of the oil reserves all over the world. But it is challenge to exploit heavy crude oil due to its high viscosity and high contents of heavy components (resin and asphaltene). However, heavy crude oil plays an important role in meeting future global energy demand (Shah et al. 2010; Jing et al. 2020; Yang et al. 2020b).