Viscosity Of Heavy Oil Research Articles

Versatility of plant oil as sustainable source for advanced functional materials design

A highly efficient combinatorial strategy was developed to prepared functional materials using cottonseed oil (CSO) to achieve high atomic economy. Four high value-added products namely Hg2+ adsorbent, C22-tricarboxylic ester, high purity oleic acid, and heavy oil viscosity reducer were prepared using CSO as starting materials. Polysulfide as Hg2+ adsorbent was prepared by inverse vulcanization reaction. The polysulfide showed great selectivity and reusability and the maximum adsorption capacity was 116.1 mg/g 22-Carbon tricarboxylic ester was synthesized by Diels-Alder reaction with CSO methyl linoleate. By reaction-assisted separation approach, oleic acid with a purity of 96.8% was obtained. CSO and 5% sodium soap of cottonseed oil solution were used as viscosity reducer for heavy oil, and the viscosity reduction rate was greater than 94.5%. It showed impressive versatility of plant oil for bio-based materials.

Multifunctional hydrophobic bio-based foam toward highly efficient photothermal cleanup of high-viscosity crude oil spills, oil-water separation and aqueous organic pollutant elimination

The environmentally friendly and efficient remediation of crude oil spills is a global challenge due to its high viscosity and low fluidity at room temperature. Herein, we reported a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) modified biomass carbon fibers foam immobilized with Ag2O@Ag nanoparticles via the self-assembly, freeze-drying, carbonization, and hydrophobic modification processes (denoted as PAAC). The resulting PAAC foam exhibited excellent hydrophobicity (water contact angle: 147.8◦), high solar absorption capacity and excellent photothermal conversion property, which enable it to decrease the viscosity of heavy oil and achieve high adsorption capacity of heavy crude oil (60.5 g/g) and great reusable performances under 0.3 sun energy drive. In addition, the PAAC foam showed excellent adsorption capacity to organic solvents and low viscosity oils (11.3–26.4 g/g). Under visible-light irradiation, PAAC foam exhibited remarkable photocatalytic efficiency for removing crystal violet and demonstrated high stability and photocatalytic activity after five consecutive cycles. The proposed design of a solar heated sorbent presents a new potential to explore multifunctional biomass materials to solve environmental pollution problems on a large scale.

Research and Development Trend of Viscosity Reduction by Catalytic Coupling Reaction of Crude Oil

In view of the increasing consumption of fossil energy, heavy oil with large reserves and wide distribution, as an important unconventional oil and gas resource, has attracted more and more attention in its exploration and development. However, due to the high content of heavy components in heavy oil, its viscosity is high, its fluidity is low, and its quality is poor. Therefore, the key to enhance heavy oil recovery is to reduce its viscosity, improve its fluidity and improve its quality. At present, steam huff and puff, steam flooding and in-situ upgrading and viscosity reduction of heavy oil are the conventional methods for heavy oil recovery. Considering the production cost, the hydrothermal catalytic cracking technology for heavy oil recovery is studied. However, most of these researches only focus on the preparation and application of catalytic viscosity reducer, and there is still a lack of in-depth and systematic research on its specific viscosity reduction mechanism. Therefore, on the basis of abundant active hydrogen provided by alcohol water reforming reaction, it is of great theoretical value and practical significance to design the application of high-efficiency heavy oil viscosity reduction catalyst by using the super molecular interaction of in-situ active minerals and exogenous metal complexes to catalyze the high-efficiency hydrothermal cracking of heavy oil.

Influence of Sodium Metal Nanoparticles on the Efficiency of Heavy Oil Aquathermolysis

In this study, for the first time we investigated the in situ upgrading performance of Na metal nanoparticles, which were obtained by dispersing small pieces of sodium in liquid paraffin up to certain dispersity. In situ aquathermolytic reactions were modeled in a high pressure–high temperature reactor coupled with a Gas Chromatography (GC) system at a temperature of 250 °C for 24 h using a heavy oil sample, produced from the Ashal’cha reservoir, Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). The mean particle size of Na nanoparticles was 6.5 nm determined by the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) method. The nanoparticles were introduced to the reaction medium with a concentration of 2 wt.% The upgrading performance of Na nanoparticles was evaluated by several analytical methods such as Gas Chromatography (GC), elemental analysis (CHNS), SARA, Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS), FT-IR spectroscopy and viscosity measurements. It was revealed that Na nanoparticles interact with water to yield hydrogen gas, the concentration of which increases from 0.015 to 0.805 wt.% Moreover, the viscosity of upgraded heavy oil was reduced by more than 50% and the content of low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons in saturated and aromatics fractions was increased. The Na nanoparticles contributed to the utilization of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide by 99 and 94 wt.%, respectively.

Microstructure of Heavy Oil Components and Mechanism of Influence on Viscosity of Heavy Oil.

The composition of heavy oil is complex, and it is difficult to develop the heavy oil due to its high viscosity and poor fluidity. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the viscous mechanism of heavy oil. In this paper, typical ordinary heavy oil, extra heavy oil, and super heavy oil samples were selected to study the microstructure of heavy oil components and the mechanism of influence on viscosity of heavy oil. The molecular weight, element composition, and polarity of each SARA (short for Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and Asphaltene) component of heavy oil samples were measured and analyzed. The viscosity of heavy oil increases with the increase of the aggregate contents of resins and asphaltene. Resins and asphaltene in heavy oil have a high polarity, high heteroatomic content, and complex molecular structure, which are the key factors affecting the viscosity of heavy oil. On the basis of the experimental results, through simulation calculation and modeling, the microstructure and molecular formula of each component of different heavy oils are obtained, which provides a quantitative reference for revealing the viscosity mechanism of heavy oil. There is little difference in the elemental composition of resins and asphaltene, but the structure is very different and the difference in structure is the key factor leading to the difference in the properties of resins and asphaltene. The content and structure of resins and asphaltene in heavy oil are the key factors leading to the big difference in viscosity of heavy oils.

The Effect of Sodium Bentonite in the Thermo-Catalytic Reduction of Viscosity of Heavy Oils

To study the synergistic catalysis of an ex situ catalyst and in situ clay in the aquathermolysis of heavy oil, in this paper, a series of bentonite-supported catechol-metal complexes were prepared, and the catalytic viscosity reduction performance in the aquathermolysis of heavy oil was investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the viscosity can be reduced by 73%, and the pour point can be lowered by 15.0 °C at most, showing the synergistic catalysis of the ex situ catalyst and in situ clay in this aquathermolytic reaction. Thermogravimetry, physical adsorption-desorption, and scanning electron microscopy were conducted to characterize the thermal stability and microstructure of the ex situ catalyst. The components of the heavy oil before and after the reaction were fully characterized. Six model compounds were used to simulate the aquathermolysis reaction process. In order to study the mechanism of viscosity reduction after the catalytic aquathermolysis reaction, the compounds were analyzed by GC-MS. It is believed that these results will be beneficial in the future for related research in this field.

A new correlation to calculate the viscosity of binary mixtures of heavy or extra-heavy crude oil and light hydrocarbons using the Arrhenius-Lederer equation

Heavy crude oils are commonly mixed with lighter crude oils to reduce heavy oil viscosity and to ensure the flow through the pipeline system. Viscosity, as is well known, is a crucial property for designing and sizing offshore and onshore facilities for producing and transporting crude oil. When not available experimentally, the viscosity of mixed crudes can be obtained from theoretical approaches such as the Arrhenius-Lederer equation depending only on bulk properties (density and viscosity) of mixture components, and an adjustable parameter (α), which allows calculations to match experimental data. This work presents a new correlation for calculating the rescaled parameter proposed by Lederer for the Arrhenius equation to determine the viscosity mixtures of heavy and light hydrocarbons. The proposed correlation was developed considering experimental data of binary mixtures of paraffinic hydrocarbons, diesel, and heavy oil over a wide range of temperature conditions (from 293 to 343 K), fluid density ratios (from 1.014 to 1.40), and viscosity ratios (1.3 to 311,000). For viscous fluids, which exhibited non-Newtonian behavior, viscosity on the first Newtonian region is considered. The correlation was tested to predict the viscosity of biodiesel-diesel, heavy crude oil-diesel, bitumen-heptane, and eicosane-decane binary mixtures from 308 to 448 K and pressures up to 10 MPa. Finally, for assessing the predictive capabilities of the new correlation, the viscosity of several mixtures was estimated. The first consisted of mixtures formed by three oils at different compositions, whereas the last consisted of a recombined live oil and supercritical CO2. Predicted viscosities are in better agreement with experimental data than those estimated from Shu’s correlation. The total mean absolute percentage error was 6.66 and 19.32 for the proposed and the Shu correlation, respectively.

Study on the synergistic effect of NaOH and CuSO4 in aquathermolysis upgrading

The development of heavy oil has become increasingly important due to the demand of human society for energy. The in-situ upgrading is a technology using transition metal catalyst to reduce heavy oil viscosity to enhance oil recovery. This work revealed the Cu atoms of CuSO4 entered the heavy oil molecules to increase viscosity, and the NaOH can inhibit this viscosity increasing effect to improve the catalyst activity of CuSO4. The composite catalyst NaOH/CuSO4 was proved to decrease the viscosity by 81.43% at 300 °C. The further analysis showed that the effect of NaOH was attributed to the competitive reaction mechanism and production of the Cu and CuOx. These conclusions are helpful to understand the aquathermolysis upgrading mechanism and develop the inexpensive and efficient composite catalyst.

CO2 improves the anaerobic biodegradation intensity and selectivity of heterocyclic hydrocarbons in heavy oil

Heterocyclic hydrocarbons pollution generated by oil spills and oilfield wastewater discharges threatens the ecological environment and human health. Here we described a strategy that combines the greenhouse gas CO2 reduction with microbial remediation. In the presence of nitrate, CO2 can improve the biodegradation efficiency of the resins and asphaltenes in heavy oil, particularly the biodegradation selectivity of the polar heterocyclic compounds by the newly isolated Klebsiella michiganensis. This strain encoded 80 genes for the xenobiotic biodegradation and metabolism, and can efficiently utilize CO2 when degrading heavy oil. The total abundance of resins and asphaltenes decreased significantly with CO2, from 40.816% to 26.909%, to 28.873% with O2, and to 36.985% with N2. The transcripts per million (TPM) value of accA gene was 57.81 under CO2 condition, while respectively 8.86 and 21.23 under O2 and N2 conditions. Under CO2 condition, the total relative percentage of N1-type heterocyclic compounds was selectively decreased from 32.25% to 22.78%, resulting in the heavy oil viscosity decreased by 46.29%. These results demonstrated a novel anaerobic degradation mechanism that CO2 can promote the anaerobic biodegradation of heterocyclic hydrocarbons in heavy oil, which provides a promising biotreatment technology for the oil-contaminated water.

Effect of molecular weight on the properties of water-soluble terpolymers for heavy oil viscosity reduction

BackgroundWater-soluble polymers are increasingly attracting the attention of petroleum engineers for their excellent surface activity and viscosity-reducing properties in enhancing heavy oil recovery. However, the actual formation conditions are highly saline, for which we designed and synthesized a new salt-resistant water-soluble viscosity reducer. MethodsHydrophobically associating terpolymers, poly(Acrylamide/ N-vinyl caprolactam/ quaternary ammonium salt alkyl chains) (ANDs), were synthesized by free radical polymerization in an aqueous solution, and we obtained four different molecular weights of polymers by dialysis. Significant findingsThe results showed that the heavy oil viscosity reduction rates (VRR) of all four polymer solutions were above 98.3% under highly mineralized formation water and high-temperature reservoir conditions. Polymer AND-4 could show good salt tolerance at a high salt concentration of 5 × 104 mg/L NaCl and reached the best viscosity reduction rate of 99.07%. In addition, the polymers' thermal stability, hydrophobicity, surface activity, and salt resistance improved with the increasing molecular weight. Meanwhile, the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and the emulsifying performance improved. This study also discussed the mechanism of viscosity reduction by different molecular weight viscosity reducers. Notably, compared with previous heavy oil viscosity reducers, this work provides a new water-soluble polymeric viscosity reducer with high efficiency and salt tolerance. It also facilitates the design and application of functionalized viscosity reducers for enhancing oil recovery.

Machine learning estimation of crude oil viscosity as function of API, temperature, and oil composition: Model optimization and design space.

Measurement of viscosity of crude oil is critical for reservoir simulators. Computational modeling is a useful tool for correlation of crude oil viscosity to reservoir conditions such as pressure, temperature, and fluid compositions. In this work, multiple distinct models are applied to the available dataset to predict heavy-oil viscosity as function of a variety of process parameters and oil properties. The computational techniques utilized in this work are Decision Tree (DT), MLP, and GRNN which were utilized in estimation of heavy crude oil samples collected from middle eastern oil fields. For the estimation of viscosity, the firefly algorithm (FA) was employed to optimize the hyper-parameters of the machine learning models. The RMSE error rates for the final models of DT, MLP, and GRNN are 40.52, 25.08, and 30.83, respectively. Also, the R2-scores are 0.921, 0. 978, and 0.933, respectively. Based on this and other criteria, MLP is chosen as the best model for this study in estimating the values of crude oil viscosity.

Influence of FeP and Al(H2PO4)3 Nanocatalysts on the Thermolysis of Heavy Oil in N2 Medium

The high viscosity of heavy oil is the main challenge hindering its production. Catalytic thermolysis can be an effective solution for the upgrading of heavy oil in reservoir conditions that leads to the viscosity reduction of native oil and increases the yield of light fractions. In this study, the thermolysis of heavy oil produced from Ashalchinskoye field was carried out in the presence of FeP and Al(H2PO4) nanocatalysts at a temperature of 250 °C in N2 gas environment. It was shown that Al(H2PO4)3 and FeP catalysts at a concentration of 0.5% significantly promoted the efficiency of the heavy oil thermolysis and are key controlling factors contributing to the acceleration of chemical reactions. The Al(H2PO4)3 + NiCO3 nanoparticles were active in accelerating the main chemical reactions during upgrading of heavy oil: desulfurization, removal of the side alkyl chains from polyaromatic hydrocarbons, the isomerization of the molecular chain, hydrogenation and ring opening, which led to the viscosity reduction in heavy oil by 42%wt. Moreover, the selectivity of the Al(H2PO4)3 + NiCO3 catalyst relative to the light distillates increased up to 33.56%wt., which is more than two times in contrast to the light distillates of initial crude oil. The content of resins and asphaltenes in the presence of the given catalytic complex was reduced from 34.4%wt. to 14.7%wt. However, FeP + NiCO3 nanoparticles contributed to the stabilization of gasoline fractions obtained after upgraded oil distillation. Based on the results, it is possible to conclude that the thermolysis of heavy oil in the presence of FeP and Al(H2PO4)3 is a promising method for upgrading heavy oil and reducing its viscosity.

Photothermal and Concus Finn capillary assisted superhydrophobic fibrous network enabling instant viscous oil transport for crude oil cleanup.

Rapid and effective removal of highly viscous oil spills from the sea remains a great challenge globally. Superhydrophobic materials are attractive candidates for handling oil spills, but they are restrained to recover oils with low viscosity exclusively. Herein, we report a novel polypyrrole wrapped superhydrophobic fibrous network using cross-shaped polyester fibers as starting blocks. The polypyrrole coating enables the absorbent to convert light to heat, ensuring that the viscosity of heavy oils in the proximity can be easily controlled. In the meanwhile, the special structure of the starting fibers initiates Concus Finn (CFin) capillary allowing instant oil transport in the network. When the absorbent is exposed to light oils (0-500 mPa.s), the oils can be transported instantly via CFin capillary. Interestingly, under synergistic effect of light-to-heat conversion and CFin capillary, a drawing-sticking crude oil strip (105 mPa.s) is sucked instantly against gravity by the absorbent. The absorbent is successfully applied to efficiently separate both oil/water mixtures and oil/water emulsions (efficiency > 99%). Such absorbent can absorb 62.99-74.23g/g light oils on average and up to 123.3g/g crude oil under 0-2 sun illumination, holding a huge potential in managing oil spills.

Extra heavy crude oil viscosity and surface tension behavior using a flow enhancer and water at different temperatures conditions

Research reports reveal the importance of applying various substances to enhance extra-heavy crude oil pipeline transportation. During the crude oil conduction process, shearing occurs in the equipment and pipe accessories, producing a water-in-crude emulsion associated with forming a rigid film by adsorbing natural surfactant molecules in the droplets water, leading to increased Viscosity. This study presents the effect of a flow enhancer (FE) on the behavior of the Viscosity of an extra heavy crude oil (EHCO) and in emulsions formed with 5% and 10% water (W). The results revealed the effectiveness of the 1%, 3%, and 5% flow enhancer in lowering the Viscosity and presenting a Newtonian flow behavior which will help reduce the cost of heat treatment during the transportation of crude oil through the pipeline.

Research on a fluorine-containing asphaltene dispersant and its application in improving the fluidity of heavy oil

The high viscosity characteristics of heavy oil make it difficult to extract, transport and process. Therefore, enhancing the fluidity of heavy oil can effectively improve the economic benefits of heavy oil resource development. Aggregation and precipitation of asphaltenes are the main causes of high viscosity of heavy oil. Asphaltene molecules are able to self-associate by intermolecular forces such as hydrogen bonding and π-π interactions, resulting in the formation of supramolecular aggregates with large particle size, leading to the increasing of viscosity of heavy oil. Fluorine is the most electronegative element and has a strong ability to form hydrogen bonds. This is due to the special role of the element fluorine, including high electronegativity and small atomic radius. In this study, the fluorine-containing copolymer was synthesized and used to disperse asphaltenes. This copolymer was also used for viscosity reduction on heavy oil in a block in Xinjiang, and the viscosity reduction rate (VRR) reached 70.25% at 600 ppm. Possible mechanism of asphaltene dispersion was proposed by fluorescence microscopy, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mechanism of interaction between copolymer and asphaltene by hydrogen bonds was further analyzed by infrared spectroscopy.

MXene based immobilized microorganism for chemical oxygen demand reduction of oilfield wastewater and heavy oil viscosity reduction to enhance recovery

The high energy consumption drawbacks of thermal recovery of heavy oil are becoming increasingly apparent, contrary to the goal of being green, environmentally friendly and low carbon. In this work, a carrier was designed for the immobilization of Bacillus subtilis using lecithin(PC)-modified magnetized Ti2C3 MXenes (PC-g-Fe3O4/Ti2C3) for heavy oil exploitation, which effectively reduced the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of oilfield wastewater and viscosity of heavy oil. According to orthogonal tests, the ideal temperature for immobilizing Bacillus subtilis was 38 °C, the ideal pH was 7, the desired mineralization was less than 20,000 ppm, the COD removal rate was over 80 %, and the heavy oil's viscosity was reduced by 77.5 %, and the carrier could be recycled and reused. As the results of the displacement experiment showed, the microbial oil drive with the carrier (PC-g-Fe3O4/Ti2C3) could enhance the recovery of heavy oil by 28.39 %, which was due to the reduction of COD and viscosity of the heavy oil in the reinjection water. So, PC-g-Fe3O4/Ti2C3 has excellent potential for use in the oil field because it is very effective, affordable, and ecologically benign.

Self-Diffusion Performance Evaluation of a Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer Based on UV–Vis Absorption Spectroscopy

Self-Diffusion Performance Evaluation of a Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer Based on UV–Vis Absorption Spectroscopy

Study of cyclic waterflooding for improving oil recovery in Lukeqin heavy oil reservoir

Long term water injection in Lukeqin heavy oil field results in a rapid increase of water cut. It is an urgent need to conduct a study on the influencing factors of heavy oil waterflooding. Experiments are used to conduct the effect of heavy oil viscosity change law on the development. Numerical simulation is used to analyze the viscosity and rhythmic conditions to clarify the production mechanism of waterflooding in heavy oil reservoirs. The feasibility study of cyclic water injection in heavy oil reservoirs is analyzed because water channeling is serious in continuous water injection, while cyclic waterflooding can slow down the injection water surge. To begin with, when using the improved cyclic waterflooding method, the working mode, reasonable number of cycles and the timing of cyclic waterflooding need to be optimized to obtain the optimal combination injection scheme. Furthermore, to investigate the mechanism of oil increase by cyclic waterfiooding, different production wells were divided into the channeling well, the seepage channel well and the normal wells according to the streamline strength, and then analyzed the mechanism influencing factor such as pressure difference and capillary force to study when cyclic waterflooding for the three types of production wells. Pressure differential are the most effective in increasing oil in the normal well, followed by the seepage channel well, and channeling well. The capillary force have the best water control effect on the channeling well, followed by the seepage channel well and the normal well. The capillary force play a dominant role in the well water control in the channeling well. The effect of increasing oil in the normal well is dominated by pressure difference. Well pressure difference and the capillary force have little to no dominant effect on the seepage channel well. The results demonstrate that cyclic waterflooding can effectively improve the recovery rate of three types of wells, with the degree of improvement from good to bad, in the order of the normal well, the channeling well and the seepage channel well. The novelty of this work lies in the combination of experimental and numerical models (mechanistic and practical) and simulation studies using three different types of wells, thus analyzing the mechanistic influence of pressure differential and capillary forces in it and concluding the dominant mechanism of action - the mechanism of development of heavy oil cyclic waterflooding is the effect of pressure difference control on production increase and capillary force control on reducing water cut.

Preparation of Temperature-Sensitive SiO2–PSBMA for Reducing the Viscosity of Heavy Oil

Viscosity reduction by emulsification is one of the most effective methods for the recovery of heavy oil. Nanoparticles with low toxicity and low cost can stabilize oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering emulsions to reduce the viscosity of heavy oil and thereby have become a new type of emulsifier in recent years. The stimuli-responsive emulsions formed by responsive particles can achieve emulsification and demulsification under external stimuli, providing convenient conditions for heavy oil transportation and recovery, where the temperature response is easier to achieve. In this study, six groups of temperature-sensitive SiO2–PSBMA (PSBMA: polysulfobetaine methacrylate) with different particle sizes were prepared by the reverse atom transfer radical polymerization (RATRP) method. The morphologies of SiO2 particles before and after grafting were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the structure of the product was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, which showed that PSBMA was successfully grafted to SiO2. The grafting ratios (η) of six groups of SiO2–PSBMA measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were similar (34.50–42.94%). The temperature sensitivity of SiO2–PSBMA was determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and the contact angles at different temperatures, which showed that its upper critical solution temperature (UCST) was about 40–50 °C. SiO2–PSBMA was applied to GD2 heavy oil to reduce the viscosity at 60 °C, which showed that the SiO2–PSBMA had a good emulsification effect. With the increase of particle size, the viscosity reduction rate (VRR) showed a trend of first increase and then decrease. The highest VRR was 96.41%, achieved by 227.61 nm SiO2–PSBMA. All of the emulsions stabilized by SiO2–PSBMA were able to demulsify at room temperature. It can be used as an intelligent temperature-responsive viscosity reducer for heavy oil to control emulsions on demand.

A new method of water control for horizontal wells in heavy oil reservoirs

It is more difficult to control water production in horizontal wells than in vertical wells. It is challenging to predict the water-producing section of a horizontal well and realize staged oil recovery. With water breaking through the oil layer, the water cut of production wells sharply rises. This can even lead to early closure of production wells, which can seriously affect the economic benefits. When researchers explore water control of horizontal wells, they usually use the method of plugging the water-producing section. The success rate is often low due to water flow around the plugged section and pollution of plugging agents in the high-oil saturation area. On the basis of nitrogen for water cresting control, this paper studied the ability of a viscosity reducer (VR) and nitrogen (N2) compound system to inhibit the rise in the water crest. First, a series of two-dimensional quantitative experiments and visualization experiments were conducted to study the influence and mechanism of the VR and N2 system in controlling water cresting. The results show that compared to N2 control of water cresting (recovery improved by 2.70%), the compound system greatly improved the water control and oil increase effects of the horizontal well (recovery improved by 26.38%). The VR enters the area with high oil saturation through osmosis to reduce the viscosity of heavy oil and the water-oil mobility ratio. N2 enhanced the osmosis of the VR in the reservoir. In addition, rheological tests were performed of heavy oil mixtures, and the viscosity reduction mechanism of the VR was analyzed via diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experiment shows that after addition of the VR, the size of heavy oil deposit was reduced and the asphaltene surface was broken. The VR reduced the viscosity of heavy oil by depolymerizing macromolecular aggregates in heavy oil and preventing them from coming together again. Finally, a field test was conducted in a horizontal well, with a cumulative oil increase of 9286.86 bbl. The research results provide an important guiding significance for water control and oil recovery of horizontal wells.