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Analysis of techniques for predicting viscosity of heavy oil and tar sand bitumen

Conference ·
OSTI ID:269541
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
Thermal recovery methods are generally employed for recovering heavy oil and tar sand bitumen. These methods rely on reduction of oil viscosity by application of heat as one of the primary mechanisms of oil recovery. Therefore, design and performance prediction of the thermal recovery methods require adequate prediction of oil viscosity as a function of temperature. In this paper, several commonly used temperature-viscosity correlations are analyzed to evaluate their ability to correctly predict heavy oil and bitumen viscosity as a function of temperature. The analysis showed that Ali and Standing`s correlations gave satisfactory results in most cases when properly applied. Guidelines are provided for their application. None of the correlations, however, performed satisfactorily with very heavy oils at low temperatures.
OSTI ID:
269541
Report Number(s):
CONF-9502114--Vol.1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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