Abstract

Vahid Hoshyargar, Azam Marjani*, Farzad Fadaei and Saeed Shirazian

Heavy and extra heavy crude oils are forming tremendous part of world crudes (about 40%). There are some problems limiting accessibility as a galore hydrocarbon source. One of limiting process is transportation which consumes very huge amount of energy due to their high viscosity. So, if there were a simple, stable, practicable in each situation and environmental friendly solution, these hydrocarbon sources could be used. Almost all over the world, the most common method for transportation of crude oil is being transported by pipeline from the production site to refineries or ports. Of course, pipeline transportation is very expensive and sometimes impossible because of heavy crude’s low mobility and high viscosity. The fact of an increase in world energy demand and the decline of conventional oils make heavy crude oils representing a relatively high hydrocarbons resource for use in future. Several methods have traditionally been proposed to enhance the mobility of heavy crudes and described here.

Emulsion; Heavy Crude Oil; Viscosity Reduction; Pressure Gradient

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