Review Study on Heavy Oil Reservoirs and Upgrading Technologies

There is an abundance of heavy oil in the world and by depletion of conventional resources of fossil fuels and with increasing the demand of energy, the importance ofheavy oil sources can't be disregarded. Iran is one of the main owners of heavy oil reservoirs in the world and despite of having considerable amount of this source, serious attention hasn't been paid on these reservoirs yet. Heavy oil due to special characteristics (lower API gravity and higher viscosity) is harder to exploit and there have been numerous studies to find the most efficient way to upgrade these feed stocks. This study is aimed to present heavy oil reservoirs in the world and a brief discussion about Iran reservoirs and a review different kinds of upgrading technologies

Keywords:

Heavy oil reservoirs , API gravity , Upgrading Process