Two-Dimensional COMSOL Simulation of Heavy-Oil Recovery by Electromagnetic Heating

Abstract: Introducing heat to the formation has proven to be an effective way of lowering the oil viscosity of heavy oils by raising the temperature in the formation. The application of electrical energy has gained more interest during the last decade because it offers fewer restrictions for its successful application compared to the conventional steam flooding methods [1-2]. Although this recovery technique has been studied before [2-8], there are no commercial reservoir simulators yet available to model the response of a reservoir when it undergoes EM heating. This paper presents the use of COMSOL Multiphysics to simulate single-phase flow in a reservoir when an EM source is applied. Starting from mass and energy balance, and Darcy’s law we modeled the effect on EM heating on temperature, pressure and flow rate for a 2D axis-symmetric system (r and z coordinates). Numerical results from COMSOL Multiphysics [9] were validated with analytical solutions for simplified cases developed earlier [10]. We determined temperatures, pressures and the ultimate oil production obtained from a reservoir when EM heating is applied