Introduction
Transportation of heavy crude represents a competitive situation, as it is energy exhaustive and capital intensive. Due to low API gravity (20° to 10°) and high viscosity (200 to 10,000 CP), the flow of oil through pipelines is very difficult. According to Chevron – Phillips, the heaviness of crude oil is due to large proportion of high molecular weight non paraffinic compounds and less percentage of paraffin. Geological origin of heavy crude oil is at the shallower depths and is the result of improper degradation of kerogen via thermal gradient. The lighter parts of immature kerogen undergo biodegradation by bacterial activities. Poor sealing of reservoir further results in the contamination of heavy oil with organic life (bacteria, etc.) and inorganic substances (iron, vanadium, nickel, etc.). There are two main types of heavy crude oil
1. High sulphur crudes contains more than 1% sulphur along with aromatic, paraffinic and asphaltic compounds and is found mostly in Alberta, Saskatchewan, California, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, and Kuwait.
2. The composition of low sulphur crude is characterized by less than 1% sulphur with resin, aromatic, and naphthenic composition
According to the report submitted by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in 2011, 270 billion barrels of heavy crude is estimated in Orinoco Belt in Venezuela. It is the world’s largest heavy oil reserve having high viscosity range (1000 to 5000 CP) and 4.5% sulphur along with vanadium and nickel as the contaminants. In order to transport the oil from Orinoco belt through pipeline, some external driving force is required such as adding diluent at regular distances, heating, inverse emulsion injection, or dilution with gas at higher ...
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...tional approaches.
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers) for giving us the opportunity to present our skill through this technical paper.
Works Cited
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hydrocarbons that forms during the extraction of natural gas and is used as a thinning
Sulfur makes up almost 3 percent of the Earth’s mass. At one time, sulfur was in the layers of the Earth’s surface. Sulfur can be found in water, mineral springs, Epsom salt, and volcanoes. The sulfur in volcanoes will turn into a gas. When sulfur comes into contact with the cold air, it turns back into a solid.
With our understanding that the pipeline is safe, and there are safety precautions in place if anything ever did happen. That it is the best economical way to transport this oil. And finally our need for this oil s huge and it will be huge for a long time unless we start the process of building nuclear power right now; even in that case we still have about 15 years before that is ready to take the work load of British Columbia. Even when we have a different sustained energy we will still have the need for oil due to the fact that’s cars are the main moat of transportation in the lower main land. That means we are far away from a province let alone a country that can run without the use of oil. And seeing how to transport it via pipe line is the safest spill wise and most economically friendly it seems to be the better choice.
This area is known as the Permian Basin. Most of the oil is being produced from rocks
These refineries are located in three different main locations: Steele City, Nebraska, Wood River and Patoka, Illinois and refineries located on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The pipeline carries three different kinds of oil, which are synthetic crude and diluted bitumen, and also light crude oil. Light crude oil comes from the Bakken formation located in North Dakota and Montana, while the synthetic crude and diluted bitumen come from the oil sands in Canada. There are already three phases of the pipeline in operation and a fourth proposed phase, which has yet to be built. The newest proposed phase has been met with mixed feelings.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered as one of the pioneers in medical imaging for diagnosis of pathologies involving soft tissues and internal structures. MRI provides good contrast resolution between different soft tissues of the body especially in brain, muscles, heart etc compared to other medical imaging modalities like computed tomograpgy (CT) and conventional radiography which utilizes x-rays for imaging. The other important aspect of MRI versus other imaging modalities like CT and conventional radiography is that MRI uses no ionizing radiation like x-rays for imaging, instead it uses a strong magnetic field to align the magnetization of some atoms within the body , then uses radiofrequency pulses to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization. This process causes the nuclei of certain atoms to produce a magnetic field which can be detected by the scanner, and all this information is used to reconstruct an MR image of the scanned area of the body. The initial experiments by Sir Otto Stern in the year 1922 stated that physically the magnetic resonance ima...
The Keystone oil pipeline system was designed to carry over 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of boreal forests in Canada to oil refineries and ports in the Gulf Coast. Half of the system is already built, including a stretch of pipeline that runs east from Alberta and south through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. The proposed 1,179-mile addition to the pipeline is now being reviewed by the States Department. The new addition to the pipeline would start in Hardisty, Alberta, cut diagonally through bisect Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, and then on another addition would connect to existing pipelines to the Gulf Coast.
Normally, emulsified water is generally present in crude oil as a result of the mixing occurring during production operations and referred to as oil field emulsion. This emulsion can be encountered at numerous stages include during drilling, producing, transporting and processing of crude oil. However, the formation of emulsion creates problems in oil field industry. They might increase the cost of production and also transportation; accumulate in the refinery tank age, pipeline corrosion, equipment failure, plugged pipeline. For economic and operational reasons, it is necessary to remove water completely from the crude oil emulsion before refining and transporting those. In order to separate the water content of the produced crude oils, the emulsions have to be broken through demulsification process.
Oil sands crude is more corrosive to pipeline and more difficult to clean up when there is a oil spill (Palliser 9). Traditional clean up techniques used will not work and some are concerned that the federal agency that oversees the United States pipelines are not equipped to handle such a massive project (Palliser 9). Search for how many oil spills in the united states. In the event of a structural failure of the Keystone XL pipeline the maximium spill volume could be 2.8 million gallons (Palliser 9). This would be devastating to wetland, rivers, ground water and drinking water
This paper describes equipment and techniques for responding to oil spills. Various techniques for the containment, cleanup and recovery of oil spills are examined; advantages and disadvantages of each are considered. Along with providing insight for oil spill response, this paper discusses environmental factors which can contribute to the success or failure of a cleanup operation.
Pipeline Transportation is a massive mode of transportation for over one hundred countries around the world. As of 2014, there is approximately 2,175,000 miles of pipeline, enough to wrap around the Earth 87 times. Of those millions of miles, 64% of the world’s pipeline is in the United States alone. Pipelines are mostly used for the transportation of both crude and refined petroleum, fuels such as oil, natural gas, and biofuels, and other fluids like water and sewage. Even alcohol is sometimes transported using pipelines. Pipelines are used all around us. Miles of them are running continuously below our feet on a daily basis. The creation of pipeline transportation has been an incredibly help to society both directly and indirectly.
,n.d. web. 21 May 2014 Petroleum engineering. Encyclopedia Britannica. N.P., n.d. Web.
» Downstream: significant refineries incorporate unrefined petroleum preparing and transport of items to retail outlets.
Geotechnical Engineering covers the engineering properties of soils, the fundamentals of soil mechanics, and the application of geotechnical data and fundamentals to the design of foundation elements, earth-retaining structures, excavations, earth embankments and highway pavements.
Pipeline transport is the use of pipes to convey various products from one point to another. These pipes can be made up of metal, plastic or even ceramic. It is efficient in transporting petroleum and natural gases over long distances. It is also convenient and economical in transporting petroleum and natural gases when compared to truck and rail modes of transport. It allows for the transport of large volumes of the commodity (Clifford