The safe transportation of waxy crude oil is a key in the field of pipeline gathering and transportation. The motion characteristics of an oil droplet in water for safe transportation are numerically analyzed in this paper. The mathematical model of oil-water two-phase flow under pipeline transportation conditions is established and solved by LBM (lattice Boltzmann method). The influences of interfacial tension, contact angle and the viscosity of oil on the flow characteristics of oil droplets, such as deformation and fracture were investigated after validating the model. The results indicate that deformation of the oil droplet is mainly determined by interfacial tension and oil viscosity, while the affect of contact angle is not substantial. With the increase of interfacial tension and the viscosity of oil, the maximum deformation of droplets before fracture decreases. It is found that the contact angle has a significant effect on the number of broken droplets and the shape of the oil droplets. While the critical time of the initial fracture is mainly defined by the viscosity. In addition, the interfacial tension also has a slight influence on the critical time of the initial fracture. (C) 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.