Additive to Improve Flow, Reduce Power Consumption and Pressure Drop in Heavy Oil Pipelines

Abstract

A drag reducing additive for heavy oil, such as crude oil, includes a polymeric alkyl-substituted phenol formaldehyde resin and a solvent having at least one of an ester (e.g. ethyl acetate), an aldehyde (e.g. butyraldehyde), and an aromatic hydrocarbon (e.g. toluene, xylene, and the like), or mixtures thereof. When used together with a diluent (e.g. condensate, naphtha, or the like), the additive may reduce viscosity of the combined oil, diluent, and additive by at least 20%, increase throughput by at least 6%, reduce power consumption by at least 3%, reduce the diluent proportion by at least 3%, or some combination of these effects, as compared with an otherwise identical heavy oil without the additive.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.