SPE 122073

Energetic Optimization to Heavy Oil Recovery by Electromagnetic

Resistive Heating (ERH)
H.J M. de Oliveira, J.L.M. Barillas, W. da Mata, T.V. Dutra Jr., Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Copyright 2009, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2009 SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference held in Cartagena, Colombia, 31 May3 June 2009.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Electromagnetic resistive heating (ERH) is a thermal stimulation technique in which the electrical current passes through
formation increasing the original temperature by Joule effect. Thus, greater is the electrical current intensity, highest reservoir
temperatures are reached. This method is much influenced by electrical conductivity of the interested zone mainly due to
electrical conductivity of connate water. So, water is directly heated by Joule effect and oil is heated by both conduction and
convection heat transfer. In this work, it was studied a combination of time heating without production and heating with
concomitant production, which provides a greater economic advantage depending on energy price used and oil price
produced, since oil production is increased due to heating provided by ERH.
This method is suitable for use in wide kinds of reservoirs, with different characteristics of reservoir thickness, injectivity,
formation permeability, formation porosity, pressure, depth, temperature, oil saturation and oil viscosity. Depending on the
energy magnitude delivered to reservoir and formation pressure, this method can be an alternative to in situ steam generation.
For offshore productions systems, where the platform surface is limited, the ERH becomes a quite attractive thermal method,
been an alternative to steam flooding avoiding heat losses in pipes.
A good strategy for ERH process is, first of all, to choose an electrodes configuration, and after, to control the energy
delivered to reservoir, by electrodes voltages, depending of desirable oil rate and temperature obtained in electrodes zones.
Electromagnetic resistive heating may produce even better results with water flooding to displace the mobile oil bank after
electrical heating, regulating the reservoir pressure and adjusting the electrical conductivity of the system. So, it was possible
to optimize the operational parameters to maximize the oil recovery with minimal energy requirement, resulting in an
economic advantage.
In this work, it was studied an application of Electromagnetic Resistive Heating in a reservoir with similar characteristics of
those found in Brazilian Northeast Basin. The obtained results can be extrapolated to others important applications, for
example, offshore heavy oil reservoirs, where, actually, there is no available technology to exploit them.

Introduction
Heavy oil has an important viscosity reduction with the increase of its temperature and, by consequence, a better mobility in
the reservoir. So, steam injection is a normally technique used to improved oil recovery, but may be not be technically
possible or economically unfeasible in situations such as permafrost, deep formations, thin pay zones and low permeability
formations. Alternative methods are needed to produce this heavy oil effectively (Rangel-German et al., 2006). One way of
doing this is to increase the reservoir temperature by means of Joule effect transformation of electric energy in heat. In this
process, the formation is heated by the passage of the electrical current through conducting fluids and solids within the
reservoir. Oil reservoir heated through Joule heating raises reservoir temperature and decrease oil viscosity, making it easier
to producer oil (Wittle-Hill-Chilingar, 2008).

SPE 122073

Electromagnetic Resistive Heating (ERH) or simply Electrical Heating for heavy oil recovery is not a new technical but
recently is been widely studied by scientific society.
Heating the oil reservoir with ERH can overcome many of difficulties encountered with conventional methods like
steamflooding or in situ combustion. This process recovers oil by reducing its viscosity around wellbore thereby improving
the inflow of oil. This technique could also be very useful during the preheating period of the formation improving the
injectivity for steamflood or solvent flood processes (Rangel-German et al., 2006).
Equation 1.1 shows that for a resistive load of constant resistance (R), an increasing the level of voltage (V), results in a
squared increased of power (P), delivered to the resistance.

V2
P=
R

(1.1)

A heating increase could provide an improved oil recovery. But, electric power has normally a high cost and should be
controlled in order to have economical benefits, minimizing electrical requirements with an optimum oil recovery.

Reservoir Modeling
Reservoir and fluids characteristics used for modeling the Electromagnetic Resistive Heating Process are detailed below.
1. Rock-reservoir characteristics
Petroleum reservoir used in this paper presents similar characteristics to those found in Brazilian Northeast Basin, but, for
better comprehension of the physical phenomenon, reservoir was considered homogeneous, described in Table 1.
Table 1 - Rock-reservoir characteristics
200
28
100
1,000
111,405
Figure 1

Top Depth (m)

Porosity (%)
Vertical Permeability (mD)
Horizontal Permeability (mD)
3
Oil in Place (m )
Relatives Permeability, Oil-Water
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
r
,K
yt 0.6
ili
b
ae
rm 0.5
e
P

e
ivt 0.4
al
e
R
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

WaterSaturation,Sw
Krw

Krow

Figure 1 - Relative permeability vs. Water saturation

0.9

SPE 122073

2. Fluids characteristics
In this work was used a compositional oil model with 3 components, making a good approximation than a model with a
single component normally used in simulations. Table 2 shows the proportion of oil molar fraction.
Table 2 - Oil molar fraction
Oil components
Gas
Light oil
Heavy oil

Fraction (%)
4.8
0.2
95.0

So, it is equivalent to an oil viscosity of 678 cP @ 37.8 C and 19.85 kPa (initial reservoir conditions). So, the oil is above its
bubble point.
This model considers that connate water has 300 ppm of salinity, presenting at initial reservoir conditions an electrical
conductivity of 0.0784 S/m (considered a freshwater). It was considered that oil has no electrical conductivity.

3. Grid dimensions
Grid and cells dimensions used in this study were refinement grid that makes a good approximation for oil recovering by
resistive heating process. Figure 2 shows wells placing, oil initial saturation and reservoir and aquifer layers.

Oil saturation

Figure 2 - Wells Placing and reservoir/aquifer layers

Grid dimensions and block numbers are show in Table 3.

Table 3 - Grid description
Number of blocks @
Reservoir
Aquifer

Grid Dimensions (m) @

25
25

25
25

20
5

200
200

200
200

20
10

Electrical Modeling
In Brazil, trading system for distributing electricity is a conventional three-phase system to three drivers, where the three
phases are 120 degrees delayed one from each other. In this model with five different wells, five electrodes were tested with
five different values of supply voltage. For this situation, it is possible by using a symmetrical five-step, 72 degrees lagged.
However, this implementation, in practice, should be more expensive, because the non-conventional voltage transformer. So,
it was studied several commercially configurations of supply voltage electrodes using one, two or three electrical phases.

SPE 122073

Moreover, in an oil field, where lots of wells are located in loops as Five-spot, the electrical load system distribution can
easily be done, just distributing them into phases of the system and controlling their heating performance by their electrical
energy consumption.
In this work, the simulations were done using the STARS Simulator from CMG (Computer Modelling Group Ltd.). This
module uses an electric energy source, that operates in 60 Hz frequency and it considers oil reservoir as a resistive load. So,
neglecting the existence reactive load effects.
In this study the electrodes were placed directly in the producers wells.
Figure 3 shows an example of an electrode distribution.

Figure 3 - Top view wells and electrodes voltages distribution

Where Vx x , is the voltage with magnitude Vx and phase x for each producer x.
Some voltages configurations of electrodes were tested to achieve a better distribution of electrical current within reservoir,
preventing a localized heating and obtaining a better heat distribution. The configurations tested are shown in Table 4. The
voltages in all electrodes were maintained constant in all project time. For all studied cases, the electrode length was 10 m
long, except Config02 in which it was used 2 electrodes of 5 m separated by 4 m.
Table 4 - Electrical voltages electrodes configurations
Configuration

Electrode 1

Electrode 2

Electrode 3

Electrode 4

Electrode 5

General

V11
0V
110120 V
110120 V
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V

V2 2
0V
110120
110120
0V
110120
110120

V33
0V
110 240 V
110 240 V
0V
110120 V
110 240 V

V4 4
0V
110 240 V
110 240 V
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V

V55
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V
1100 V

Config00
Config01
Config02
Config03
Config04
Config05

V
V
V
V

Phases
Number
1
3
3
1
2
3

Results
In order to analyze the ERH performance, Figure 4 and Figure 5 show cumulative oil and oil rate for the configurations of
Table 4.
Figure 4 shows a significant increase of oil rate since the beginning of the heating process compared with no heating case.
The best results were obtained by Config02 and Config01, which represents better electromagnetic field distribution.

SPE 122073

Figure 4 - Oil Rate versus time. A comparison among cases with initial voltages and without ERH.

Figure 5 shows cumulative oil versus time, for all studies cases configurations. Once again, the best obtained results were for
Config02 and Config01: approximately 55,000 SC m3 of oil. Without ERH the cumulative of production stays around
23,000 SC m3 of oil.

Figure 5 - Cumulative Oil. A comparison among cases with initial voltages and without ERH.

Figure 6 shows cumulative electrical energy delivered to reservoir and effectively converted to heat versus time for all
studied configurations. Config02 and Config01, best ones for oil recovering, on the other hand, were the ones with
higher electrical energy consumptions.

SPE 122073

Figure 6 - Cumulative Electrical Energy with initial voltage

Optimization of Config02
In order to optimize the energy consumption, the Config02 was chosen, the one with best oil production rate and best
cumulative oil. Figure 7 shows the schedule used for electrodes voltages of six cases of Config02 optimization. For
example, in Config02_20 the range of supply voltage electrodes is monthly changed in their first two years, spending
cyclically 30 days with 110 V, 30 days turned off, 30 days at 145 V and more 30 days turned off, until to complete 2 years.
After, it is 110V continuously until the end of the seventh year, where it switches again the voltage electrodes to 55 V until
finish the 15 years of the project.

Figure 7 - Schedule of voltages

Then, using the changes of voltages corresponding to Figure 7, it was founded new cases of cumulative oil. Figure 8 shows
cumulative oil for Config02 and its variations. It can be seen that cumulative oil for new voltage schedule are close to the
original curve of Config02.

SPE 122073

Figure 8 - Cumulative Oil of Config02 and variations

Figure 9 shows cumulative Electrical Energy of Config02 and variations. It can see that there was a significant decrease in
required energy used in the process. However, that not resulted in a significant loss in cumulative oil. So, this new voltage
schedule brings economy benefits in the electromagnetic resistive heating process. Therefore, it is observed that there is a
trade-off between the cumulative oil and the amount of electrical energy used.

Figure 9 - Cumulative Electrical Energy of Config02 and variations

Table 5 shows a comparison among studied cases Config02 for cumulative oil and energy consumption. Cum. Oil was
calculated based on cumulative oil of Config02, Energy was also calculated based on Config02. Config02_15
decrease 55.8% of required energy and decrease 12.5% of cumulative oil in 15 years of production, so it can see that it is
possible minimize energy requirements.

SPE 122073

Table 5 Cumulative Oil and Energy Comparative of Config02 and variations

3

Config02
Config02_04
Config02_15
Config02_18
Config02_20
Config02_21
Config02_22

Cumulative Oil (m )
55,770
55,549
48,786
50,730
53,264
51,010
52,971

Energy (kW-hr)
4.6E+07
4.1E+07
2.0E+07
2.1E+07
2.8E+07
2.2E+07
2.9E+07

Cum. Oil %

- 0.4
- 12.5
- 9.0
- 4.5
- 8.5
- 5.0

Energy %

- 10.3
- 55.8
- 53.4
- 39.9
- 53.2
- 35.8

Analysis of Config04
It was also analyzed Config04. Two cases were studied in order to observe changes in reservoir behavior: one with a
decrease of 15% on the voltage level and second with an increase of 15% on the voltage level.
Figure 10 and Figure 11 show Cumulative Oil and Cumulative Energy for this study and Table 6 shows their comparison.

Figure 10 - Cumulative Oil of Config04 and variations

SPE 122073

Figure 11 - Cumulative Electrical Energy of Config04 and variations

Depending of energy price and oil price, it should be analyzed if the additional oil recovered can be at least equal to the
process electrical energy consumption. Table 6 shows cumulative oil, energy, and difference for cumulative oil and energy
relative to Config04. In Config04_04 15% was reduced on electrodes voltage and in Config04_05 15% was increased
on electrodes voltage, reflecting a decrease of 29.2% and an increase of 34.4% in energy consumption, respectively. It means
a difference of 9.2% on cumulative oil and 47.3% difference on energy consumption between Config04_04 and
Config04_05.
Table 6 Cumulative Oil and Energy Comparative of Config04 and variations
3

Config04
Config04_04
Config04_05

Cum. Oil (m )
51,487
48,940
53,906

Energy (kW-hr) Cum. Oil %

3.0E+07

2.1E+07
- 4.9
4.0E+07
4.7

Energy %

- 29.2
34.4

Conclusions
For this reservoir model with ERH the principal conclusions are:
9 ERH can be used as an oil recovery method.
9 It is possible increase cumulative oil and oil recovery changing some operational parameters such as electrical
voltages and electrodes configurations;
9 Changing schedule of voltage is also possible to maintain cumulative oil, minimizing energy requirements;
9 Schedule voltages bring economical advantage when compared to homogeneous electrical voltage.
References
Sahni, A., Kumar, M. Knapp, R. B., Livermore, L.: Electromagnetic Heating Methods for Heavy Oil Reservoirs, The
2000 SPE/AAPG Western Regional Meeting, Long Beach, California, 1923 June 2000 SPE 62550.
Rangel-German, E. R. et al.: Thermal Stimulation and Economic Evaluation of Heavy-Oil Projects, First International Oil
Conference and Exhibition in Mexico, 31 August - 2 September 2006 SPE 104046.
Wittle, J. K., Hill, D. G. and Chilingar, G. V.: Direct Current Electrical Enhanced Oil Recovery in Heavy-Oil Reservoirs
to Improve Recovery, Reduce Water Cut, and Reduce H2S Production While Increasing API gravity, The 2008 SPE
Western Regional and Pacific Section AAPG Joint Meeting, California, U.S.A. , 31 March- 2 April 2008 SPE 114012.
Fofonoff, P. and Millard, R. C. Jr. Algorithms for computation of fundamental properties of seawater. Unesco Technical
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