New concepts of combining electromagnetic heating with horizontal wells

A significant portion of billions of barrels of heavy oil reserves cannot be produced with conventional means due to the presence of a bottom-water zone. These reservoirs do not exhibit any natural drives and any displacement-type process leads to early breakthrough of the displacing fluid. Consequently, heavy oils trapped in reservoirs containing bottom-water cannot be produced. Only recently, a new technique has been proposed for the recovery of such heavy oils; this technique involves the use of electromagnetic heating in combination with gravity-stable inert gas injection in horizontal wells. This paper presents a summary of the key features of this process and presents select experimental as well as numerical simulation results.