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A New Approach to Heavy Oil and Bitumen Table 1. Rubiales Crude Properties
Upgrading API Gravity 12.8
UOP K 11.4
Nickel, wt-ppm 42.0
J. P. Glavin, B. W. Hedrick, and K. D. Seibert,
UOP LLC and C. Crewe, Meta Petroleum Vanadium, wt-ppm 152.0
Sulfur, wt-% 1.3
Introduction Con-Carbon, wt-% 12.9
The current growth in transportation fuel demand is Viscosity, cSt @ 122 F 933.3
outpacing the supply of traditional crude oil sources. This gap
is being filled through increased production of non-traditional The Rubiales field was acquired by Meta in mid-2003
hydrocarbon deposits, such as Canadian oil sands, Venezuelan when the field’s production was 940 BPSD. The crude oil
heavy oils and stranded crudes. These deposits are considered production rate from the Rubiales field has steadily increased
non-traditional as they can not be transported via pipeline due since 2003 and they currently produce approximately 9,000
to low API gravity, high viscosity or high pour point. The BPSD. The crude oil is transported from site using a fleet of
producers of these non-traditional deposits must solve the 400 tanker trucks on a continuous ten day round-trip to the
pipeline issues at a cost that will still produce a positive return. Colombian coast, where it is used as fuel oil, refinery feed,
Optimizing revenue depends on a number of factors including marine fuel and raw material for asphalt.
location, availability of natural gas, and proximity to power. Meta’s goal is to increase the Rubiales field production to
The degree of upgrading for these deposits is highly dependent 100,000 BPSD by 2008. However, current transportation
on local infrastructure, with some being upgraded via logistics make an 11 fold increase in field capacity nearly
hydrogen addition and/or carbon rejection and others being impossible. Estimates are that the maximum field capacity by
minimally processed to just meet pipeline specifications. tanker truck would only be 15,000 BPSD using all 600 of
It is apparent that increasing amounts of petroleum will Colombia’s tanker supply.
come from non-traditional sources. The most common of In order to increase production Meta investigated
these being the Canadian oil sands projects in Alberta and the transportation of the heavy crude oil by pipeline. It was
Orinoco belt of Venezuela. There are many other examples of discovered that the Rubiales crude did not meet pipeline
isolated crude supplies in the world that are not currently specifications for viscosity or API gravity (see Table 2,
exploited. Columbia for example has heavy oil supplies Pipeline Specifications).
which are as isolated as the Venezuelan Orinoco play. These
supplies have not been exploited because of their isolation, not Table 2. Crude Oil Pipeline Specifications
meeting pipeline specifications and their lack of proximity to Viscosity, cSt @ 100 °F 250
natural gas and power supplies. API 16
Experimental Vapor Pressure, psia 14.9
Rubiales Holding Limited, a joint ownership of RHC
Limited of the Cayman Islands and PetroSynergy of the Results and Discussion
Bahamas, is the parent company of both Tethys Petroleum The largest advantage of the CCU process over other
Company Limited (Tethys) and Meta Petroleum, Ltd (Meta). upgrading technologies is the lower required crude oil
Tethys and Meta own the oil field licenses for the 361 square processing capacity to meet pipeline specifications. The CCU
kilometer Rubiales concession and the 253 square kilometer process is catalytic, not thermal, and therefore carries with it
Piriri concession in the Llanos basin in Colombia. significant conversion and yield selectivity benefits. This
Meta, the sole risk field operator, is currently producing results in a higher API liquid product to be used for cutter
heavy oil from the Rubiales field. The Rubiales field is stock, and less coke make than a traditional coking based
located 470 kilometers from Bogotá and 1900 kilometers from facility. Table 5 below shows the combined synthetic crude
Cartagena. The location of the field, coupled with the crude properties.
oil properties (see Table 1, Rubiales Crude Properties), makes
export of the field’s production difficult. For Meta, Table 5 contains two key numbers. First, the
liquid recovery from the upgrading facility is greater than 98%
In March 2005, after investigating the other crude oil and second, the API gravity is well above the pipeline
upgrading scenarios, Meta contacted UOP in an effort to find a specification of 16. Both of the numbers have a direct impact
new approach to upgrading that would meet all of Meta’s on profitability. With increased liquid recovery there is more
goals for the project. UOP evaluated the Rubiales crude assay saleable product, and the higher API gravity increases the
and determined that all of Meta’s project objectives could be market value of synthetic crude oil.
met. In April 2005, Meta met with UOP to discuss the UOP
Catalytic Crude Upgrading (CCU) process.

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Table 5: Combined Synthetic Crude Properties stretches the limits. By design, the CCU unit processes only
Rubiales CCU Meta enough of the crude to create sufficient cutter stock to produce
Crude Product* Synthetic a synthetic crude meeting pipeline specifications. The process
Crude has a high coke yield, which results in the opportunity to
BPSD 100,000 28,413 98,413 produce large quantities of both steam and electrical power.
Lb/hr 1,430,663 341,739 1,343,204 The produced steam and power supply the utility needs of the
API 12.8 39.7 19.6 complex as well as the surrounding oil field, the upgrading
RVP @ 0.85 28.9 14.8 complex and the infrastructure necessary to support the
100 °F, project.
psia The process can be adapted to meet the needs of a
Viscosity 933.3 1.1 24.9 number of stranded oil projects where natural gas and
@ 100 (122 °F) electricity supplies are unavailable. The CCU process is
°F, cSt applicable to heavy oil projects such as the Meta project
Viscosity 127.0 0.4 5.4 described here, and also to projects where high quality waxy
@ 210 (176 °F) crude can not be pipelined because pour point restrictions.
°F, cSt
Acknowledgments. The authors acknowledge the support of
*Processing 30,000 BPSD of raw crude with 89% C4 and 66%
Meta Petroleum and UOP LLC in publishing this paper.
C3 recovery, respectively
References
Conclusions (1) Purvin & Gertz, “Global Petroleum Market Outlook, 2006.
The UOP Catalytic Crude Upgrading process offers a (2) Purvin & Gertz “Global Markets for Canadian Oil Sands
unique solution to stranded non-traditional crude production. Crudes”, December 2005.
The process is based on traditional FCC principles but

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