Scientific and technical journal

«Oilfield engineering»

ISSN 0207-2351

DOWNHOLE ELECTRICAL HEATING DYNAMIC MODEL ASSESSMENT IN EXTRA-HEAVY OIL RESERVOIR APPLICATION

UDC: 622.276.656
DOI: 10.33285/0207-2351-2021-1(625)-12-23

Authors:

MANAPOV TIMUR FANUZOVICH1,
KORABELNIKOV ALEXANDER IGOREVICH1,
VELASQUEZ RICHARD1,
LARA VICTOR2

1 Petrolera RN, Caracas, Venezuela
2 Computer Modelling Group, Caracas, Venezuela

Keywords: extra-heavy oil, downhole electrical heating, heating cable, reservoir and well simulation, visco-skin effect, British thermal unit, near-wellbore heating, well productivity index

Annotation:

The paper describes the experience of using a fully integrated 3D reservoir and discretized mechanistic wellbore simulation approach in the extra-heavy oil field (Venezuela) in order to estimate the enhance of the oil productivity index by using resistive/ohmic heating cable. The impact of downhole heating was estimated to reduce the visco-skin factor and analyze the interaction between reservoir inflow and wellbore performance. Numerical simulation of low frequency electrical heating was performed by use of thermal simulation software with a feature of a wellbore modeling tool that can couple to the reservoir model. Additionally, optimization software is used to perform the sensitivity analysis and automatic optimization studies. The heating cable simulation approach allowed evaluate the influence of wellbore heating parameters on the highly viscous extra-heavy oil behavior in the reservoir while increasing the temperature inside the wellbore. By applying wellbore calculations coupled to the reservoir simulation, it was possible to understand critical aspects of the oil and gas flow in the reservoir due to different drawdown along horizontal well section, pressure lossess along the wellbore due to friction and the general efficiency of the heating cable.

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