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Heavy oils, extra-heavy oils and tar sands are major players for the
future of energy.
They represent a massive world resource, at least the size of
conventional oils. They are found all over the world but Canada and
Venezuela together account, by themselves, for more than half of
world deposits.
They share the same origin as the lighter conventional oils, but
their geological fate drove them into thick, viscous tar-like crude
oils. Most of them result from alteration processes mediated by
microbial degradation. They are characterized by a low content
of lighter cuts and a high content of impurities such as sulfur and
nitrogen compounds and metals ; so, their production is difficult and
deployment of specific processes is required in order to enhance
their transportability and to upgrade them into valuable products
meeting market needs, and honouring environmental requirements.
Although these resources are increasingly becoming commercially
producible, less than 1 % of total heavy crude oil deposits worldwide
are under active development.
The voluntarily wide scope of this volume encompasses geology,
production, transportation, upgrading, economics and environmental
issues of heavy oils. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, but to
provide an authoritative view of this very important energy resource.
Besides presenting the current status of knowledge and technology
involved in exploiting heavy oils, the purpose is to provide an insight
into technical, economic and environmental challenges that should
be taken up in order to increase the efficiency of production and
processing, and finally to give a prospective view of the emerging
technologies which will contribute to releasing the immense potential
reserves of heavy oil and tar deposits.
This book will consequently be of interest to both specialists and
non-specialists who are looking for a general overview on the
question of heavy crude oils.
