Method for Judging the Stability of Asphaltenes in Crude Oil

The colloidal instability index (CII) has been widely used for testing the stability of asphaltenes as a classical method. In this study, five oil samples were tested by the CII method; the results obtained greatly differ from the real field results. In our investigation, we combined the Turbiscan LAB stability analyzer and saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) analysis to further investigate the asphaltene stability by heptane titration. The results revealed that there exists a threshold volume ratio before the asphaltenes destabilize. The stability of crude oil is related to the saturation solubility of asphaltenes. By testing the CII value of the crude oil in its current state and the CII value of the dissolved asphaltenes in its saturated state, we were able to propose a new way to judge the oil stability.