In situ combustion (ISC) is an effective enhanced oil recovery method for heavy oil reservoirs. It is acknowledged that the oxidation reaction between crude oils and injected air dictates the overall success of ISC processes. However, the field applications have shown that it is difficult sometimes to initiate a successful ignition and the sustainable propagation of the combustion front under reservoir conditions, which might be caused by the low reactivity of the oil, low reservoir temperature and high water saturation, etc. The use of catalyst for promoting ignition and enhancing oxidation has been considered as an effective method to solve this problem. In this study, an oil-soluble copper-based catalyst was synthesized for improving the oxidation behavior of Ashal’cha heavy oil. Its catalytic effects for the oxidation process of Ashal’cha heavy oil that is from Tatneft oil company (Tatarstan, Russia) were evaluated using high-pressure differential scanning calorimetry (HP-DSC) and adiabatic reaction calorimeter (ARC). The oxidation behavior of heavy oil with and without catalyst was analyzed, including onset temperature, thermochemical parameters, reaction intervals and their temperature range, spontaneous ignition temperature and induction time, etc. An obvious shifting of reaction intervals was observed from DSC curves. The exothermic peaks of both low temperature oxidation (LTO) and high temperature oxidation (HTO) were turned to lower temperatures. The onset temperature of exothermic reaction is significantly reduced. Simultaneously, in ARC experiments, significant reduction in both the spontaneous ignition temperature and induction time (more than 30 %) of the oxidation was achieved in the presence of copper-based catalyst. Also, the kinetic parameters of oxidation processes with and without catalysts were calculated based on the obtained data from HPDSC experiments. It turned out that the activation energies in both LTO and HTO stages were greatly reduced due to the addition of copper-based catalyst. All these results indicated that oxidation behavior of heavy oil is significantly improved in the presence of the copper-based catalyst, which implies that the copper-based catalyst has a great application potential in improving oxidation during ISC process. In addition, it is noteworthy that this oil-soluble copper-based catalyst can be produced with cheap initial reagents in a simple way. Thus, the low cost makes it possible to be widely applied in air injection technologies.