A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR WELL STIMULATION AND EOR USING ELECTROMAGNETIC HEATING: KEY FACTORS TO ACHIEVE OPTIMUM CONDITION OF HEATING USING NANOPARTICLES

摘要

The search for conventional oil is getting more and more difficult, while heavy oil and extra heavy oil have recently been considered as alternative energy sources to fulfill world energy demand (Meyer et al., 2007). However, it is technically challenging to produce heavy and extra heavy oil due to its high viscosity. Many technologies have been applied in the field to recover heavy oil, such as steam injection, in-situ combustion and hot-water flooding and electromagnetic heating. Amongst them all, electromagnetic heating is being introduced as an effective technology to recover heavy oil since it can handle thermal aqueous limitations. Thus, electromagnetic heating is shifting the paradigm in supplying energy in the new reality. Electromagnetic heating is an alternative way to heat the reservoir fluids without much loss of heat to the surroundings (Chakma and Jha, 1992). It uses electromagnetic radiation to heat the reservoir to reduce the oil viscosity. There are two types of electromagnetic heating: low-frequency heating and high-frequency heating. In low-frequency heating (< 60 Hz), resistance heating dominates the process (Chakma and Jha, 1992; Carrizales et al., 2008). In high-frequency heating (3 kHz to 300 GHz), dielectric heating dominates the process (Sierra et al., 2001; Carizzales et al., 2008). Furthermore, high-frequency heating is more applicable and it is commonly used in the field (Sresty et al., 1986; Davison, 1991; Sierra et al., 2001; Hascakir and Akin, 2009).