Temperature Distribution and Pressure Transient Analysis in Heavy Oil Reservoirs Undergoing Microwave Heating

Heavy oil production often requires adding heat energy to the reservoir to reduce the oil viscosity. One method for heating heavy oil reservoirs involves the use of microwave heaters. In this work, we propose the integration of the heat transport model with the fluid flow model in such a way as to improve the pressure transient analysis (PTA) in any heavy oil reservoir undergoing microwave heating. We consider a single well in a radially homogeneous reservoir with a microwave heating source centered in the well. This paper investigated the effects of 1, 5, and 10 KW power sources to heat the reservoir. The heating from the microwave source affects only a portion of the reservoir thus creating a radially composite reservoir comprising a heated region close to the well and an unheated zone farther away from the well. Using the developed heat transport model, we studied the effect of well production rates (ranging from 5 to 50 STBPD) and microwave source power on temperature distribution in the reservoir. We then employed the combined heat-transport and fluid-flow models to study the pressure and temperature variation with time at the wellbore. Synthetic datasets are matched to obtain different reservoir parameters. The sample test shows the importance of considering the effect of temperature on heavy oil viscosity during PTA. This paper introduces a novel approach by incorporating heat generated from electromagnetic waves, heat conduction from the heat sources, and heat advection by reservoir fluids towards the well.