In view of the problems such as high viscosity of heavy oil reservoir and poor conventional development effect, salicylaldehyde bis Schiff base-nickel complex catalyst was synthesized. The complex powders presented typical morphological characteristics of metal-organic framework materials with mesoporous structure, which facilitates the entry of the monomer or aggregates of resin and asphaltene into mesoporous channels, and thus increased the contact efficiency between catalytic active centers and heavy components. Meanwhile, the catalyst possessed amphiphilic surface, which is weak hydrophilic but strong hydrophobic, making it easy to disperse in water and able to spontaneously migrate towards the oil-water interface, effectively improving the transport efficiency of the nickel catalytic center. The catalyst showed good temperature resistance, with a mass retention rate of 65.14% at 600 oC. The viscosity reduction rate and viscosity rebound rate of the catalyst for heavy oil were evaluated by high temperature and high pressure reactor. The carbon number distribution characteristics of heavy oil before and after catalytic reaction were analyzed. The effect of catalyst on oil displacement efficiency was studied by displacement experiment. Field test was carried out in Shengli Oilfield, and the catalytic effect was analyzed. It was found that the viscosity reduction rate of Shengli heavy oil could reach 87.6% at 250℃, reaction time 10 h and mass fraction of 1.5%. After 30 days, the viscosity rebound rate was only 3.9%. After the reaction, the heavy oil became lighter, the content of components with carbon number greater than 41 decreased significantly, and the content of components with carbon number less than 26 increased significantly. The displacement experiment showed that the displacement efficiency was increased by 10.5% compared with that of pure steam flooding. The field test results showed that the daily liquid and oil production of oil wells were significantly increased and the cumulative oil production was increased by 315t after the catalytic upgrading.