Subsurface Upgrading of Heavy Crude Oils and Bitumen

Heavy crude oils and bitumen represent more than 50% of all hydrocarbons available on the planet. These feedstocks have a low amount of distillable material and high level of contaminants that make their production, transportation, and refining difficult and costly by conventional technologies. Subsurface Upgrading of Heavy Crude Oils and Bitumen is of interest to the petroleum industry mainly because of the advantages compared to aboveground counterparts.

The author presents an in-depth account and a critical review of the progress of industry and academia in underground or In-Situ upgrading of heavy, extra-heavy oils and bitumen, as reported in the patent and open literature. This work is aimed to be a standalone monograph, so three chapters are dedicated to the composition of petroleum and fundamentals of crude oil production and refining.

Key Features:

• Offers a multidisciplinary scope that will appeal to chemists, geologists, biologists, chemical engineers, and petroleum engineers
• Presents the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies considered
• Discusses economic and environmental considerations for all the routes evaluated and offers perspectives from experts in the field working with highlighted technologies

Cesar Ovalles graduated with a Licentiate degree in Chemistry from Simon Bolivar University

and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University. Right after graduation, he worked for 16

years at Petroleos de Venezuela Sociedad Anonima-Instituto de Tecnologia Venezolano del Petroleo

(PDVSA–INTEVEP). In 2006, he joined Chevron and is currently Technical Team Leader of the

Heavy Oil Characterization group. He is involved in the areas of petroleum chemistry, heavy and

extra heavy crude oil upgrading (surface and subsurface), and asphaltene characterization. After his

28 years of industrial experience, Dr. Ovalles has published 62 papers in peer-reviewed scientific

journals, 4 books, has been awarded 18 patents, and presented 116 papers at scientific and technical

conferences. Additionally, he has published 14 articles in Venezuelan journals and 92 Technical

Reports for an outstanding number of 306 total scientific productions. Cesar has also served as

Associate Editor of Revista de la Sociedad Venezolana de Catalisis from 1996 to 2000 and Vision

Tecnologica (Technical Journal of PDVSA–INTEVEP) from 2000 to 2002. In 2014, he won the

Outstanding Technical Achievement Award from Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards

Conference and the National STAR-Hispanic in Technology-Corporate Award from the Society of

Hispanic Professional Engineers. Cesar is married to his college sweetheart, Luisa (Lulu), and is the

father of two grown children. His son, Cesar Arturo, is a computer science graduate currently working

for Safeway Supermarkets and his daughter, Manuela, is a microbiologist working for Mission

Bio, a start-up company in South San Francisco.