Sheikhan crude oil faces obstacles during transportation from production wellsite to processing facilities due to high viscosity. To enhance the flowability, reducing the sheikhan crude oil viscosity is a promising approach. For this purpose, a heavy crude oil sample from Sheikhan oilfield was blended with various rate of industrial polar solvents such as (Toluene, methanol) and gas condensate at different temperatures.
This experimental study shows that mixing sheikhan heavy crude oil with toluene have a good reduction in the crude oil viscosity since this polar tends to interface between asphaltene sheets and dissociation of asphaltene aggregates. However, the impact of methanol on viscosity is less where this solvent tends to forming hydrogen bond between asphaltene sheets and methanol molecules. Finally, the gas condensate reduced the crude oil viscosity but its impact reduced at higher temperature.
Keywords: Heavy Crude Oil, Viscous Crude Oil, Crude Oil Recovery