Viscosity Control and Petroleum-related Operations

Petroleum is one of the most important fluids in today’s global marketplace; it remains the primary source of liquid fuels and of rough material for polymerisation industry’s product manufacturing. Viscosity is an important fluid characteristic for many reasons: it can be a functional property; it can be correlated to an exclusive attribute; it can be related to utilisation efficiency; or viscosity can be one indication of how a fluid is handled (pumped, filtered, stirred, etc.). Like most physical properties, viscosity is measured with laboratory analysers or directly in-line. This article aims to provide insight into viscosity as it relates to petroleum-related operations.