Review of Chemical Viscosity Reduction Technology for Ordinary Heavy Oil Reservoirs based on Environmental Protection

Abstract With the increase of crude oil production in the world, the proportion of conventional crude oil is gradually reduced, so the recovery of heavy oil has become the development trend. Due to the characteristics of high viscosity and low fluidity of heavy oil, its exploitation difficulty is much higher than that of conventional heavy oil, which has become the main problem restricting its exploitation and utilization. In this paper, the commonly used chemical viscosity reduction technologies for heavy oil were reviewed, including emulsification viscosity reduction technology, oil-soluble viscosity reduction technology and catalytic modification viscosity reduction technology. Combined with literature and related oilfield experiments, this paper analyzed the mechanisms, advantages and disadvantages of technologies and prospected for future technology development of viscosity reduction technology.