Techno-Economic Analysis of Heating Techniques for Transportation of Heavy Crude Oils by Pipeline

Three approaches (heat exchangers with steam, heat exchangers with thermal oil, and direct fired heaters) were analyzed for heating pipeline to transport a heavy crude oil (viscosity of 62,745 cSt a 15.6 °C, and 11.78° API gravity). The selected pipeline has a length of 62.7 km and transports 5,000 BPD of heavy crude oil. With the calculated temperature drop (4.39 °C/km) and pressure drop (0.25 kg/cm 2 -km), five heating and pumping points each 12.53 km were determined to maintain the required temperature and pressure for the transportation of heavy crude oil. For each heating system, mass and energy balance was done to calculate the size of equipment and utilities consumption. CAPEX and OPEX were obtained to identify which heating system exhibits the lowest operating costs. The results indicate that the best heating system is with direct fired heaters from both technical and economic points of view (lower number of equipment, easy and flexible operation, commercial experience and lower consumption of utilities). OPEX and CAPEX for this heating system were 0.32 USD/bbl and 0.78 USD/Bbl, respectively. This indicates that the price of heavy crude oil should be 1.1 USD/bbl higher than that at the production point