Extraction and Refining of Heavy Crude Oils: Problems and Prospects

The main problems of the development of heavy oil fields and the ways of their solution are considered. The modern nontraditional methods for extracting heavy crude oils, ensuring their in situ upgrading, such as aquathermolysis, combination of catalytic upgrading and in situ combustion, and in situ electric heating, are analyzed. Research fields that could bring the technologies for heavy crude oil extraction closer to the ready-touse level are outlined. The main processes allowing heavy crude oil to be involved in processing at the existing oil refineries are considered, and the Russian experience in this field is demonstrated.