The Heavy Oil Engine—I

Heavy oil developments in the Middle East

Oman is currently a particular “hot spot” for investment in a range of EOR techniques to produce heavy oil, but is much less visible in industry statistics than countries such as Canada and Venezuela. Other countries in the Middle East are encouraged by Oman’s success and, with the additional impetus of increasing oil prices, are becoming more active in heavy oil production. For example, Iran a...

Coal, Oil Shale, Natural Bitumen, Heavy Oil, and Peat

Development of Heavy Oil Hydrocracking Catalysts

This paper present some results obtained from the research program being pursued at the Research Institute of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals aimed at the development of suitable catalysts for hydrocracking of the vacuum gas oils from Arabian Light crude to obtain higher quality distillate products. The newly developed high-performance hydroprocessing catalysts are based on synth...

Bioremediation of Heavy Crude Oil Contamination

Crude oil contamination is one of the major environmental concerns and it has drawn interest from researchers and industries. Heavy oils contain 24-64% saturates and aromatics, 14-39% resins and 11-45% asphaltene. Resins and asphaltenes mainly consist of naphthenic aromatic hydrocarbons with alicyclic chains which are the hardest to degrade. Crude oil biodegradation process, with its minimal en...

Heavy Silicone Oil and Intraocular Inflammation

In the past two decades, many advances have been made in vitrectomy instrumentation, surgical techniques, and the use of different tamponade agents. These agents serve close retinal breaks, confine eventual retinal redetachment, and prevent proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). Long-acting gases and silicone oil are effective internal tamponade agents; however, because their specific gravity i...