Effect of oil-solubility catalysts on the low-temperature oxidation of heavy crude oil

Due to low oil recovery factor in heavy oil reservoir, air injection with catalyst becomes a competitive technology to effectively reduce viscosity of crude oil as a result of the low cost and small environment pollution. This paper determined the feasibility of air injection with catalyst in a heavy oil reservoir through static and dynamic experiments. The results indicated that under the effect of catalyst, oxidation between heavy oil and air could significantly reduce the viscosity of crude oil. The optimal catalyst contained 0.7wt. % oil-solubility organic acid copper and 0.5wt. % sodium hydroxide. With the oxidation time increasing, viscosity of crude oil decreased and oil recovery factor increased. With temperature increasing, viscosity of crude oil decreased sharply and oil recovery factor increased. The oil recovery factor of air huff-n-puff process was 30.2%. Air injection with catalyst in the reservoir is a promising technology.