Crude Oil Production Cost Reduction
Client Overview
A major oil sands company produces viscous bitumen and requires a large daily supply of light hydrocarbon diluent. This diluent is blended with bitumen to manage its viscosity for transportation to markets.
Challenge
The producer's diluted bitumen crude exhibited inconsistent viscosity, leading to excessive diluent usage, which increased operational costs. The over-blending led to significant viscosity giveaway and resulted in pipeline inefficiency, with more capacity taken up by diluent instead of the produced bitumen.
Objectives
Achieve consistent diluent blending practices to meet pipeline specs without overuse.
Improve viscosity control for more predictable and reliable product quality.
Reduce unnecessary diluent costs while maximizing the transport of bitumen in pipeline capacity.
Minimized diluent blending into produced bitumen to achieve crude oil that met pipeline specifications.
Significant reduction in viscosity variability helped improved blending confidence and reduced off-spec risks.
Developed predictive tools and improved measurement system accuracy to achieve optimal quality control.
Improved pipeline efficiency, maximizing the transport of bitumen to markets.
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