Petroleum in general is found in sub-surface reservoir formation amongst pores existent in the formation. For several years due to lack of information regarding production and technology, free-flowing, low viscosity oil has been produced known as conventional crude oil. Fortunately, in recent times, due to advancement of technology, high viscosity with higher Sulphur content-based crude has been produced known as heavy oil. There are also exists significant difference in volatile materials as well as processing techniques used for the two types of crude. (IEA, 2005; Ancheyta et al., 2007). The oil viscosity is a huge problem in regard to heavy oil as both recovery and processing charges increase proportional to Sulphur content and viscosity of the crude.
Heavy Oil can be used by definition internationally to describe oil with high viscosity (Although the Oxford dictionary might have several variations of the same, within the contents of this paper, we refer to heavy oil as high viscosity crude). Heavy oil generally contains a lower proportion of volatile constituents and larger proportion of high molecular weight constituents as compared to conventional crude oil (often referred to as light oil, we shall describe the characteristics of the types of oil further in the introduction). The heavy oil just doesn't contain a composition of paraffins and asphaltenes but also contains higher traces of wax and resins in its composition. These components have larger molecular structures leading to high melting and pour points. This makes the oil a bad candidate for flow profiles and adversely affects the mobility of the crude. (Speight, 2016). It is crucial to know the heavy oil constitution as it affects:
Recovery: Low viscosity and high melting points
Processing: Higher Resin, Sulphur and aromatic content
Transportation: Low Viscosity
These all together impact the economics related to E&P (Exploration and Production) of heavy oil resources. These resources generally have a higher of production associated with them and are one of the first candidates to be affected by reduction of crude prices as seen in 2014 and early 2015. Crude oil can generally be classified into its types by using its API values that are generally obtained through lab testing. Table B1 provides a few popular crude types and their associated API Values.
