Oil Recovery By Electromagnetic Heating Method In Fractured Oil Wells

The success achieved by recovery thermal methods in heavy oil reservoirs motivated emerging studies on using electromagnetic heating process for improved oil recovery. There are three different types of electromagnetic heating according to the frequency range used. They are: the resistive, the inductive and the dielectric heating. The choice of the heating type depends, among others, on factors such as reservoir depth, geological heterogeneities, electrical characteristics of reservoir constituents, type of electromagnetic heating and operating frequency. In order to increase the heat distribution in the reservoir, it can be fractured using electromagnetically sensitive particles. This study was based on computer simulations in oil reservoirs with characteristics similar to those found in the sedimentary basins of the Brazilian Northeast. Regardless to electromagnetic heating type to be used, this will generate a temperature distribution according to the geometry of the fracture developed filled with electrically sensitive particles. The purpose of this work is the use of electromagnetic heating as a recovery method of heavy oil, to analyze the influence of these fractures geometries in the reservoir model proposed. All cases studied were carried out using the commercial simulator STARS from CMG (Computer Modelling Group, version 2012.10).