Abstract
The transportation of a heavy crude oil of 12.71° API was studied by dilution with different hydrocarbons (crude oils and their distillates) in blending ratios from 95/5 to 5/95 vol % HCO/diluent. The target of the maximum viscosity value of the blends was fixed at 300 cSt at 37.8 °C to allow the crude oil to be transported. The evaluation was carried out to transport in a 10 km pipeline 10 000 BPD of heavy crude oil with the different diluents. As expected, the viscosity of the blends is reduced when the diluent is lighter. The highest required amount of diluent was for Maya crude oil (64.2 vol %) and the lowest was for naphtha from Isthmus crude (19.7 vol %) to meet the required maximum viscosity. Capital expenditures resulted in 2.7 and 3.5 MMUSD for pipeline diameters of 4 and 6 in., respectively. The lowest operation expenditures (53.22 USD/bbl) were for dilution with straight-run heavy gasoil from Isthmus crude oil. This diluent also presented the lowest total blending cost. The contribution of pumping, maintenance, and labor costs was marginal, with less than 1% with respect to the total blending cost.
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