A Critical Review of Improved Oil Recovery by Electromagnetic Heating

Conventional thermal improved oil recovery (IOR) methods, such as fire flooding and steam flooding, are commercially viable when properly applied. Every conventional method has one or more limitations. If the reservoir is shallow, the reservoir pressure may be too low to maintain a steam drive. If a reservoir is too deep, wellbore heat losses become excessive. Fireflood success depends on crude composition. Each of the conventional thermal methods requires sufficient reservoir transmissibility to achieve fluid Injection. Electro magnetic heating (EMH) has the potential for overcoming some of the limitations of conventional thermal methods such as environmental, cost and depth of operation. EMH as an IOR method to heating heavy crude by increasing its transmissibility, stimulation solution in asphaltenic wells, oily pollution removal, and so on, has environmental economical and technical advantages.