Multiphysics Field Coupled to a Numerical Simulation Study on Heavy Oil Reservoir Development via Electromagnetic Heating in a SAGD-like Process

作者：Jifei Yu, Wenchao Liu, Yang Yang, Mingkai Sun, Yanfeng Cao, Zicheng Meng · 发表于：Energies · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3390/en17205125 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis、Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques、Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods

Conventional thermal recovery methods for heavy oil suffer from significant issues such as high water consumption, excessive greenhouse gas emissions, and substantial heat losses. In contrast, electromagnetic heating, as a waterless method for heavy oil recovery, offers numerous advantages, including high thermal energy utilization, reduced carbon emissions, and volumetric heating of the reservoir, making it a focus of recent research in heavy oil thermal recovery technologies. This paper presents a numerical simulation study of electromagnetic heating for heavy oil recovery, using a heavy oil block in the Bohai Bay oilfield in China as a case study. Firstly, a multiphysics field coupled to a mathematical model was established, considering the impact of the temperature on the heavy oil viscosity, the threshold pressure gradient of non-Darcy flow, and the dielectric properties of the reservoir, along with heat dissipation from overlying and undercover sandstone and gravitational effects on fluid flow. Secondly, a numerical simulation method for the coupled multiphysics fields was developed, and the convergence and stability of the numerical simulation method were tested. Finally, a sensitivity analysis based on the numerical simulation results identified the factors affecting heavy oil production. It was found that electromagnetic heating significantly enhances heavy oil production, and the threshold pressure gradient greatly influences the prediction of heavy oil production. ...