RHEOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF WATER-IN-OIL EMULSIONS OF HEAVY AND EXTRA-HEAVY LIVE OILS: EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION

Stable emulsions were prepared with heavy and extra-heavy live oils by using a set-up recently built at Ecopetrol S.A. - Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo (ICP). This equipment permits to prepare water-in-oil emulsions at reservoir conditions without any change on the overall hydrocarbon composition. The live emulsions were prepared with water contents up to 26% in volume. Then, a capillary viscometer was used to study the rheological behavior of these emulsions at different shear rates and pressures up to 24.2 MPa. The experimental results permit to conclude that the prepared and evaluated emulsions have a Newtonian behavior for the conditions of water contents, shear rates, pressures and temperature (60°C) here studied. For these emulsions, a logarithmic behavior of the viscosity with respect to pressure and water content was also observed.