Environmentally Friendly Method for Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery by In-Situ Upgrading Process Based on Catalytic Steam Injection

Abstract

Any crude oil with an API gravity below 20 is considered heavy crude, and crude oil with an API gravity below 10 is considered extremely heavy. Conventional oil is lighter and less dense than unconventional oil resources such as heavy oil, extra-heavy oil, and bitumen. When the world’s conventional crude oil stocks are depleted, heavy oil resources will be well-positioned to continue satisfying demand for petroleum products. The economic viability of heavy oil depends on its quality being increased. The use of a catalytic steam injection in-situ upgrading technique to improve heavy oil recovery is discussed here. Previous research has shown that in-situ upgrading has a high catalytic ability to upgrade heavy crude oil by decreasing viscosity, increasing the amount of saturates (obviously low carbon number alkanes), and causing the thermal decomposition of high molecular weight substances such as asphaltenes and resin. There may be advantages to in-situ upgrading over more traditional methods of surface upgrading.