IPTC-20134-MS

Production Optimization Through Intelligent Multilateral Wells in Heavy Oil

Fields via Electrical Heating

Cenk Temizel, Saudi Aramco; Celal Hakan Canbaz, Ege University; Fatma Bahar Hosgor, Petroleum Software ltd.;
Raul Moreno, Smart Recovery; Dike Putra, Rafflesia Energy

Copyright 2020, International Petroleum Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 13 – 15 January 2020.

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Abstract
Electrical resistance heating provides key advantages over other thermal recovery methods in the recovery
of heavy oil resources. These advantages include low upfront capital expenses, more control on the delivery
of the heat spatially, easiness of permitting in environmentally sensitive areas as well as environmental
and economic benefits due to lower carbon footprint. However, the recovery efficiency is relatively lower
compared to more conventional methods such as CSS, steamflood and SAGD processes as it doesn't
introduce a (pressure) drive mechanism and radius of impact is relatively small which may result in marginal
economics.1 In this study, the application of electrical resistance heating on multilateral wells are studied in
order to illustrate the enhanced physical and economic benefits of the method with the multilaterals.2
A comprehensive review of the technology with all the technical and economic details on the deployment
of the electrical resistance heater is provided. A full-physics commercial reservoir simulator is utilized to
model a benchmark model and it is coupled with a robust optimization and uncertainty tool to investigate
the significance of the control and uncertainty variables in the system. Propagation of the heat, increased
the radius of impact, production performance, energy input and economics are outlined in comparison to
the base case where the horizontal well is modeled without the extra laterals. Production engineering and
deployment aspects are all provided in detail, as well.
Utilization of electrical resistance heaters on multilateral wells provides improved economics due to the
increased recovery with the additional accessible reservoir volume for heating with the reduced cost of the
additional laterals as opposed to the major cost of the main wellbore. The improved unit cost for the heater
per foot also helps the economics, thus increased the radius of impact translates into better recovery at lower
unit costs. Model inputs as well as the results including the production performances, significance of key
parameters and economics, are outlined in a comparative manner.
Electrical resistance heating is not a new process but has recently gained more attention due to the
advances in the materials used providing better durability, however, the recovery process needs special
designs that bring down the unit cost to make the projects feasible. This study provides a new approach in
improving recovery in electrical resistance heating methods that may help to turn several potential marginal
2 IPTC-20134-MS

projects into projects with more favorable economics in a method which has a great potential in an industry
becoming more environmentally sensitive.

Introduction
Features and Characteristics of Multilateral Wells
Multilateral well applications are based on a structure that includes several horizontal wells radiated from
the main borehole. The first multilateral well application performed in the former Soviet Union in 1950s.
The well included 10 legs which sourced from the same mainhole and drilled in different directions.
Following that initial well, all the multilateral wells were drilled in Russia till 1980s. First multilateral
completion outside of Soviet Union was successfully performed in France (1984). Later on, applying
multilaterals become one of the well-known completion strategies with the developments in directional
drilling technology and thousands of wells have been successfully drilled worldwide. Multilateral wells are
also used in old wells to stimulate production from the same zone or different zones (Figure 1). Especially
in tight and heavy oil formations, the length of the horizontal leg is crucial to increase the Productivity
Index. In other words, a multilateral well with two legs will mostly have a better productivity index than
a conventional horizontal well.3

Figure 1—Illustration of Mody and Coronado (2010) for Multilateral well structure that produces from different zones.3

Some multilateral wells also include separate legs which departed from the horizontal section (Figure 2).
The operation starts with drilling the main borehole. The next step is to create the sidetrack section which
varies with the well completion type (open-hole or cased-hole). Sidetrack technology is commonly used for
IPTC-20134-MS 3

abandoned wells particularly for years. It is an efficient method to extend the total productivity as well as
the life of the well by creating an extra penetration area to the untouched locations of the reservoir.

Figure 2—Well Sketch of a lateral that belongs to a multi-lateral well.12

A sidetrack well can be created by applying different methods such as; "wash-out", "kicking off", and
applying whipstock/packer assembly. In wash-out technique, a jet-bit or a mud motor is used to create a side-
way from the main borehole. It uses a bit which includes a unbalanced nozzle flow and specially designed
to create a notch in the sidewall. Kick-off is a technique that uses a cement-plug which is set in just below
of side-track planning depth. When the bit engages with the cement plug, it directed through to the sidewall
section and starts to create a side-hole. However, this technique does not have a direction control. The
most effective technique is using a packer or whipstock assembly which provides to control the sidetrack
direction. Two types of packers are suitable to use in this technique. Anchor packers for open-hole sections
and inflatable packers for cased-hole.

Smart Tools in Multilateral Wells

Smart well designs which were rapidly developed in past decade and well accepted as most advanced
completion strategy,is also adapted to multi-lateral wells.4 Mainly, an intelligent well includes permanent
sensors to identify the changes on the physical parameters (such as; rates, pressures, and temperatures) of the
wellbore and enable the operator to adjust the well flowby using smart devices located in different depths.
Each lateral can easily be monitored real-time in a smart multi-lateral completion. Using these two-pair
components (sensors and flow control devices) paves the way of increasing the well productivity index.5
As a new technology material, Fiber-optic systems also enable the operator to monitor the pressure and
temperature distributions of different well depths with a high accuracy in real-time. It is a robust mechanism
which let to have a quick analysis and interpretation of an oil well for the identification of any water/
gas breakthrough as it will decrease the temperature.6 Such an early description allows to use the flowing
control devices (FCV, ICV etc.) to close the undesirable flow. It helps to reduce water levels of produced
fluid, enables a uniform depletion by increasing the hydrocarbon recovery. Mainly, flowing control devices
are enabled to adjust the flow rates and directions as well as they enable to control the injection fluids.
4 IPTC-20134-MS

Flowing control devices can be hydraulically or electrically controlled from the surface. The connection
lines let to control each lateral separately by using different control line for each lateral. In a case of a water
breakthrough in one of the laterals, flowing connection of that lateral can be plugged up by using an ICV.

Optimization Tools of Multilateral Wells

Various optimization tools such as; Genetic Algorithms (GA), engines that work with GA, binary and
real form representations, simulators that enables numerical reservoir computations, softwares that perform
representations of Multilateral wells, Softwares that includes ICV representations.
Genetic algorithms are basically described as an optimization technique that tries to replicate the human
evolution to some extent. Genetic Algorithms (GA) were firstly studied by John Holland in the 1960s.7
His aim was mainly to study the natural adaptation phenomenon and to search the ways of importing the
mechanisms of natural adaptation into computer systems He described a genetic algorithm that moves a
population of chromosomes to a new population based on a natural selection mechanism combined with
genetic-inspired operators.8 In a genetic algorithm, each cycle named as a generation that includes the
sections of evaluation, crossover, mutation and selecting the next generation.9, 10, 11
As a worldwide searching method that applicable for the functions that have discontinuity(where can not
obtain derivatives) and local optima, Genetic algorithms are suitable to be used as a optimization tool to
describe the optimum configuration of Inflow Control Device. Additionally, GA is convenient for parallel
computation which enables a robust computation with increased speed of optimization. It is also easily
adapted to other algorithms of optimization and can be used as a hybrid algorithm.12 Genetic algorithms
can also be represented in binary (by using zeros and ones) variables to handle the solutions of problems
which include discontinuity like ICV configuration issues. Binary forms gives a robust solution as it only
uses integers. Apart from Real forms, solutions in binary forms need decoding before putting the variables
to objective function. In a case that the size of population is larger and looking for a search a bigger solution
space, real forms are needed to be used even if their computation take longer times.
Some commercial softwares are available to represent the multilateral well properties and smart
completion mechanisms (ICV etc…) by considering the mechanism of restrictions (pressure losses etc.).
Some of these softwares also let to handle a ICV design and optimization with the sizing of the tool by
calculating the maximum production rate of each lateral of the well with the selected design.

Advantages and Challenges of Multilateral Wells

Multilateral wells are advantageous by minimizing the capital costs compared with multiple horizontal wells
or single wellbores which will be drilled to create same penetration area. It also reduces the footprint during
the drilling operation sourced by lowering the well count. Due to this reason, it is a preferred completion
method especially in offshore and arctic areas which requires extra environmental sensitivities. However,
using a multilateral well in a field is a decision that needs to be scrutinized well due to the feasibility
concerns. For this reason, several factors are needed to be investigated to understand whether the field
worths to be drilled multilateral wells or not. The easiest method is to analogize the multilateral wells
with the traditional single-bore wells that penetrated to the same formation area. It results with much more
penetration area of one multilayered well. It also means that the multilayered well has less drilling depth
and reduced rig time compared with the conventional wells. Due to these reasons, it is an advantageous
completion design especially in harsh locations like offshore platforms or arctic areas.
On the other hand, well completion design is challenging due to its complexity compared with the
conventional wells. Most of the smart wells include hydraulic control systems to satisfy a simpler and more
reliable operation. These hydraulic connections can be installed in a limited number with today's technology.
Furthermore, today's wellhead controlling systems let limited number of penetrations. This situation of
hydraulic systems indicate that smart tools that control with electrical systems will be next focal point of
the industry.
IPTC-20134-MS 5

The cost of a multilateral well is also higher due to the latest technology equipments that used, as well as
the complexity of operations. It also includes a higher risk compared with the risk of a conventional well.
Any problem that resulted in abandoning the well will bring the loss of a huge cost that is equal to the cost
of a number of conventional wells.
Completion and production of Smart multilateral wells include some extra operational challenges
compared with conventional wells. Following a successful function test which performed to detect any
leak, the components are run in hole. function test performed by opening and closing the vales to verify the
mechanism is "fit for purpose".4 Suresh et al. investigated the challenges of a smart multilateral well and
they indicated some key points for a successful smart multilateral well drilling and completion operation.
Some key lessons given in the study as; cleaning the hole (especially the laterals) is crucial as huge amount
of debris (around 88.5kg) was taken out from the wellbore during the drilling operation. Before running
the liners, a drift run needs to be performed following the hole cleaning activities to ensure a good hole
condition. Additionally, Cement curing time also need to be planned well by taking the lateral sections into
account. They used two ICVs which control the commingled flow from two different laterals (Figure 3).
Completion design includes pressure and temperature sensors, ball and Inflow control valves, feedthrough
packers to ensure a zonal isolation. An ESP pump is also installed in vertical section of the well. A series
of learned key lessons given in the study such as; handling a good cavity test ahead of setting the packer,
strongly depends on setting the packer following the line terminations through the outlet of the wellhead;
any hitting (of control line) or sticking (up above the tubing hanger) issue can be prevented by using a guide
bar during the blow-out preventer lifting operation.13

Figure 3—Smart multi-lateral well completion.13

Worldwide Applications of Multilateral Wells

Recent years have witnessed a revolution in well construction strategies with the development of
Multilateral wells. It applied in thousands of wells in different type of reservoirs worldwide (Maricic, 2008).
It also has become a trendy research topic of the scientists. First worldwide multilateral tool application
which includes fiber-optic technology is successfully applied on a tri-lateral well in 2008.14 Effect of
multilateral wells on maximizing the well productivity was investigated by Mody and Coronado in 2010.3
6 IPTC-20134-MS

In 2015 and 2017, Butler et al. indicated the risks of Multilateral well completion and gave the key
points of multilateral reliability and efficiency by analyzing more than 800 multilateral installations. A
multilateral well system gets challenging and each zone production need to be described when the well
produces a commingled flow.15-16 Cetkovic et al. developed an analytical methodology for the optimization
of multilateral wells by using multilateral wells that has 3 to 7 laterals.17 Multilateral completions also
applied in gas wells. The situation of using a multilateral well in gas wells is simulated by changing a series
of well and reservoir parameters like number of laterals, permeability ratios (kh/kv), lateral lengths and
spacing by Ahmed et al. in 2016.18 Coss et al. investigated the effect of using fiber optic telemetry systems
in multilateral wells. A series of sensor modules (like flow-through gamma, tool face, and inclination) were
run-in-hole with coiled tubing and a new cost-effective process that can be applied to stimulate multilateral
wells described in 2017.19 Firstly, the contribution of each lateral is successfully controlled in a well with
five laterals in Saudi Arabia. The challenges such as; using ane effective production string concept and a
new technology used to achieve seven different bores in the packer w/o losing the packer integrity were
given in details by Zahrani et al. in 2017.20 Effect of applying multilateral wells for the cost optimization of
a field studied by Zhambrovskii in 2018. Production performances of a multilateral and a single horizontal
well is compared by using a well modeling theory and calculations of flow.21

Electrical Resistive Heating

The world has a significant amount of heavy oil reserves and oil sands that will become major energy
supply for the next decades. The depletion of conventional oil reservoirs opens a window for further
development of technologies to recover heavy oil and oil sands. Heavy oil has higher specific gravity
and viscosity along with reduced mobility compared with conventional oil and generally need enhanced
recovery methods to reduce its viscosity, achieve mobility, and enable displacement and communication
towards the producer. From the energy point of view, EOR methods can be broadly classified as non-
thermal and thermal recovery methods (Figure 4).22 Although their application depends on the reservoir
characteristics, reservoir fluids, and the expected exploitation strategy; polymer flooding, CO2 flooding,
steam injection and in situ combustions are the most promising methods from the commercial point of
view.6, 23 As oil viscosity reduces and mobility increases with heat, thermal EOR methods constitute great
importance for heavy oil production. The thermal methods contain two processes; in the first process heat
is injected into the reservoir and in the second one heat is generated within the reservoir.
IPTC-20134-MS 7

Figure 4—Well The classification of EOR methods.22

Among all thermal methods, the steam injection which involves injecting hot water or steam in order
to change the insitu oil properties employing a temperature increase and thus make it flow easily is the
most widely used method.24, 25 While steam injection is economic and technically feasible, there are certain
cases where it may not work very well such as shallow reservoirs where the reservoir pressure is too
low to maintain a steam drive, deep reservoirs where heat losses to overburden are significant and the
quality of steam reaching the formation is very low, in reservoirs having low water and gas saturation or
the permeability is too low to permit injection of steam, reservoirs having thin pay zones and situations
where injecting steam may cause environmental problem or commercially uneconomical. For those cases,
other thermal methods should be considered. Apart from the common thermal methods, electrical heating
when applied in suitable situations offers significant advantages over other thermal enhancement techniques
as it is more suitable in terms of depth, controllable heat loss and more efficient in the heterogeneous
reservoir.25, 26, 27 Additionally, it can be applied directly into the area of interest. Electrical heating consists of
generating heat by an application of an electric current to increase the temperature and reduces the viscosity
near-wellbore without requiring a fluid heat carrier which is particularly advantageous for production from
thin sands or in areas where increasing the reservoir temperature reduces viscosity significantly. It also
increases the bottom-hole pressure avoiding excessive gas liberation near the well It also mitigates paraffin
or sulfur accumulation in tubular and minimizes pump rod fall problems. According to literature, this method
increases the recovery factor up to 60% compared with the cold production and depending upon the type of
reservoir, the near-wellbore application of electrical energy can triple the flow rates.24 Heavy oil reservoirs
with high temperature (60°-80°C) where only a small amount of electric heating-stimulation is enough to
increase oil production such as Orinoco reservoirs, Venezuela, and reservoirs overlaid by heat sensitive
permafrost are suitable for electrical heating stimulation. Electrical heating depends on the frequency of the
electrical current. While in the high frequency range (radio frequency and microwave) dielectric heating
prevails, in the low frequency range resistive or ohmic heating is dominant. Accordingly, electrical heating
tools is mainly classified based on frequency of electrical current as given in Figure 5.24, 25, 27, 28, 29
8 IPTC-20134-MS

Figure 5—Electrical heating methods scheme.

Figure 6—a) Schematic view of microwaves33 b) RF (radio frequency) heating35

1. Low frequency currents: Resistive/Ohmic heating,

2. Low-Medium frequency currents: Inductive heating,
3. High frequency currents: Microwave and Radio Frequency heating methods.
In addition to this, some other techniques such as; Electrocarbonization (electrovolatization) that applies
a high voltage (up to 15,000 volts) alternating current between the wells and consequently, carbon link that
acts as a conductor is formed between the boreholes, Electro-Osmosis30 that applies a DC voltage between
a producing well and the surrounding formation to increase oil production, Laser heating that uses infrared
radiation produced in-situ can be found in the literature.31, 32
The radiofrequency and microwave heating use very high frequency energy to heat the reservoir.
Their principle is based on dipole friction of molecules. The dipoles formed by the molecules tend
to align themselves with the electric field. The alternation of the electric field formed by molecules
induces a rotational movement on the dipoles and result in significant heating.33 In microwave heating, the
microwaves heat water molecules and this heat transferred to the formation. But microwave gives only
small volume effectiveness and a huge installation density is required also the cost and reliability under
harsh environmental conditions is questionable.34
Another form of electrical heating technique is inductive heating where a medium frequency electric field
is produced from a subsurface coil fed from a surface located converter. The electric current flowing through
the conductors induces a magnetic field in the surrounding medium. The alternation of the magnetic field
causes secondary currents, whose circulation in the medium generates heat. Since the current is induced in
the casing that serves as a heating element, the heat is generated both inside and outside the well (Figure 7a
and 7b).24 Induction heating is not much effective, but it has been tested in many field projects.32
IPTC-20134-MS 9

Figure 7—a) Configuration of wellbore for induction heating36, b) Electrical induction heating schematic.32

Low-frequency electric heating method is also called Ohmic/Resistive (Joule) heating because the heat
is produced by the movement of electric current through the formation. This method uses two neighboring
oil wells as one anode and one cathode. By applying the potential difference between the two electrodes
the reservoir is heated. In the formation resistive heating, the formation acts as a resistor for electricity
where the current goes through conductive paths. The electrical current is conducted within the reservoir by
connate water and the salinity of water provides conductivity.28 This technique uses downhole electrodes,
usually located within an injector and producer, which are supported either with an adjacent well or with
the surface. Additionally, the ohmic resistive type method which is the simplest and easiest to apply uses
a heating element inside the well that converts the electric energy into heat. This heat is transferred to the
formation like a common water heater. With this method, oil is heated inside the well and improves flow
assurance.24 Figure 8a illustrates the scheme of Low-frequency heating (ohmic heating) and Figure 8b gives
a schematic representation of a downhole resistive heater installed in a horizontal well. Heat output from
this type of devices typically ranges between 14 w/ft and 730 w/ft (1,100 – 60,000 Btu/d/ft).37

Figure 8—(a) Low-frequency heating24, (b) Schematic of a resistive heater in a horizontal well.37
10 IPTC-20134-MS

All these methods are applied in the field by using a downhole magnetron or heater. Table 1 tabulates
the comparisons between the major electrical EOR techniques. As mentioned above, heating with low
frequencies (generally 60 Hz) is described as electrical resistance heating and it has been proposed to
improve recovery of heavy oil since the late nineteen sixties. The viscous heavy oil reservoirs are mostly
composed of oil, water, gas, and sand. The sand matrix has a very high electrical resistivity and the connate
water in the reservoir is able to play the role of conductor.

Table 1—Comparison between different electrical EOR techniques (Rehman and Meribout, 2012).

According to the Joule principle of heating, electric currents pass through a resistor, electrical energy is
converted to heat. The joule's heat is formed by the flow of electrical currents between electrical potential
sources. In principle, electrical current passes through the connate water due to its electrical conductivity
potential so the presence of optimum saline water saturation is essential. (Figure 9). To keep the electrical
continuity, the connate water phase must be continuous, and its vaporization should be prevented by keeping
the formation temperature below the boiling point of water.38,39 Additionally, temperature and salinity are
important factors in electrical heating. Salinity increases the conductivity of connate water but in high salt
concentration reservoir, corrosion of electrodes may occur.

Figure 9—A schematic of joule's heating process in a saturated reservoir (left) generated
joule's heat in saline water then (right) heat diffuses from water phase to surrounded oil. 38

The main components of the electrical heating system are the power supply, power delivery system,
electrode assembly, and ground return system. The typical power supply can deliver low frequency power
IPTC-20134-MS 11

at controlled levels up to 100 kW and consist of tubing and cables. Current conducted down the power
delivery system to the electrode assembly is in electrical contact with the reservoir formation. From the
electrode, the current is forced to flow through the reservoir, generates heat and return to the power supply
through the casing. (Figure 10). The heated radius can be three to seven meters.40

Figure 10—The essential components of an electrical heating system in a horizontal well.41

The electric joule's heating method can be employed in different types of reservoirs having different
formation depth, formation porosity and permeability, temperature, pressure and thickness but mainly
suitable in cases that steam injection cannot be functional, high initial oil viscosity, low injectivity and
productivity, high heat losses area, existence of thief zones and GHG emission limits.38,42 Initially, an
immature form of downhole resistance heaters was used to stimulate oil wells in California and the
Soviet Union between 1890 and early 1960s. After 1960, various investigators evaluated the near-wellbore
electrical heating using 60 Hz Ohmic heating systems.28 Amba et al., (1964) presented electrical low
frequency joule's heating of a reservoir for the oil viscosity reduction.43 There are many reservoir simulation
model28,44 and experimental models43,45 that were used to study resistive electrical heating.34 Those studies
initiated the applicability of the direct flow of electricity within the reservoir to reduce the oil viscosity and
enhance oil production.46 Recently, the interest in electrical heating is increased because of its environmental
impact since by using electrical heating methods GHG emissions can be also reduced. In spite of this, there
are few field applications that were commercially viable. In 1992, the first field application of RF heating
was applied to a shallow diatomite reservoir in the N. Midway field, CA.47 In 1996 and 1999, the results of an
oil field test where two vertical wells and one horizontal well were heated electrically were presented. One of
the successful applications were performed in Frog Lake (EOR-MAZZEI) field in 1988-1989. A resistance
heating test was done in the field for 8 months, with a three-fold increase in production.48 Also, in the
Schoonebeek field in the Netherlands during 1989-1990, a two-fold increase in production was observed.49
In the field test of downhole electrical heating in offshore Congo, the initial reservoir viscosity of 1000
cp was reduced to much lower values than results an enhancement in production.50 There are some field
12 IPTC-20134-MS

tests performed by Shell in Peace River Canada by using long horizontal heaters. Moreover, an electrically
resistive heating field test in Athabasca using closely spaced electrodes into the oil sands formation has
been completed.51 In this field, water is injected into the electrodes to transfer heat rapidly into the oil sands.
In most of the field applications, the aim is to increase the heavy oil production by providing oil viscosity
reduction near the wellbore where the resistance the flow is highest and in conclusion, some of the field
results are very attractive. But further studies and the pilot test must be performed regardless of profitability,
in order to increase future commercial success.
Electrical heating is not a new concept, but commercialization and wider application require further
development. Since the original form of electrical heaters were difficult to apply especially due to the
necessity of saline water, commercially new generation of heaters are being built lately for generating heat
in a near wellbore area of the reservoir. They consist of heating cables such as a mineral- insulated (MI)
cable that allows alternating current to flow between two conductors packed in a resistive core composed
of polymer and graphite (Figure 11a) MI cables are dielectrically insulated with magnesium oxide and used
where high watt density or high temperatures are required. They have been used for heavy oil including in
the Congo52, Venezuelan and California fields. Because of its installation is difficult due to the less flexibility
of the cable, constant wattage cable (CW) was developed to address some of the limitations of MI cables.

Figure 11—a) Mineral insulated (MI) heat trace cable, b) Skin effect heat tracing, (c) Constant Wattage heat trace cable.35

CW cable provides a constant amount of wattage per linear length. It is constructed of parallel resistor
circuits and has a flexible polymer jacket for easier field installation (Figure 11c) and it can solve flow
assurance issues including wax, paraffin and hydrate problems. Another cable option is Skin-effect tracing
systems that generate heat on the inner surface of a steel heat tube bonded to the pipe to be heated (Figure
11b).39, 53
The heating cables are upgrading as per reservoir conditions and developing the technology. Although its
energy consumption, electrical resistive heating is the simplest technique and it has been utilized in several
wells with satisfactory results with its effectiveness and high reliability. Rangel et al. (2004), studied electric
heating with mineral-insulated cable. Reservoir simulation models using single and dual lateral horizontal
wells completion proves that an electric resistance heating element with a modest power output improves
the oil recovery more than double.44
An example of the performance of the electrical heater with Mineral Insulated (MI) wellbore heating
cables that was utilized in one of the heavy oil fields in California is given in Figure 12. Electric Downhole
Heating systems were used to inject a substantial amount of heat to lower the viscosity of oil in the reservoirs
and increase oil inflow in the pay zone. Oil production improvement can be seen clearly. In addition to
this, reduced water production, reduced sand production, and less pump wear due to less pump load were
also monitored.
IPTC-20134-MS 13

Figure 12—Selected field results for one well before and after downhole heater installement.36

Several electrical heating projects are modeled to replace or assist another EOR process such as steam
injection, SAGD or water injection. The sequential combination of different technologies increases the
efficiency of EOR. Asan example, in the Zatchi Marine field, Congo, cold production assisted by a
DownHole Electrical Heating system was tested. Downhole heater start-up allows production enhancement
by heating the reservoir and improved the ESP performances and with significantly lower investment
costs compared to steam injection.50 Another hybrid model is Gas and Electrical Heating Assisted Gravity
Drainage (GEAGD). Zhong et al. (2011) proposed the use of two horizontal or vertical wells for resistance
heating, one for production, and the other one for injecting a gas like N2, CO2, flue gas.54 Simulations showed
a two-fold increase in oil production.32
In simulation studies of Faja Heavy-Oil Reservoirs, a downhole electrical heater was used during the
first 3 years of production, followed by the application of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) for
12 additional years.55 The combination of a wellbore heater followed by a SAGD process was doubled
the cumulative oil recovery (Figure 13a) and showed favorable economics. Using downhole heaters
before a steam-injection process accelerates the early production and reservoir-pressure depletion. Another
simulation study was performed in XJ Oilfield, China, to test the performance of EH-SAGD.25,32 The
simulation results showed an encouraging production increase, where the peak oil rate was enhanced from
30 tons/day to 44 tons/day as seen in Figure 13b. Electrical heating also rendered the pressure decline and
increased the efficiency of steam injection process. Consequently, EH-SAGD would be a good choice as
an EOR method.

Figure 13—Production performance comparison between SAGD

and EH-SAGD a) Faja Heavy Oil Reservoir55 and b) XJ Oilfield.56
14 IPTC-20134-MS

Simulation Models
In this study, the benchmark model is performed by using a full-physics commercial reservoir simulator.
Following the creation of the model, it coupled with a tool that enables to run robust optimization to
investigate the significance of the control and description of system uncertainty variables. The changes on
the parameters of the heat propagation, economics, production performance, the input of energy, and the
impact of increased radius are compared with the scenario that only uses a horizontal well w/o any extra
laterals. Effects of the model input parameters compared with the production performance results.
The model is constructed on comparing the active and passive devices. Figure 14. and Table 2 shows
the comparison of cumulative oil between the active model and passive model. Obviously, the active model
has a better cumulative oil than the passive one. The difference is up to 7.99E+7 bbls. Figure 15. shows
similar results as Figure 14.; a significant difference occurs from the beginning of production between the
active devices and passive devices model. Additionally, depletion in the second year for both cases were
drastically observed. This occurrence is mostly is caused by water breakthrough in the wellbore. However,
it needs further investigation to locate the water sources. Its worth to point out that the module was utilized
to run 100 times for active devices models to seek the optimum oil cumulative. The optimizing run use
some parameters as can be seen in Table 4.

Figure 14—Cumulative oil comparison for both models

Table 2—Cumulative Oil for active and passive devices

IPTC-20134-MS 15

Figure 15—Oil production comparison for both models

Table 3—Oil production for active and passive devices

Table 4—Sensitivity parameters for optimization

Figure 16. shows the cumulative oil production amounts with the increased temperature injector and
compare all trial-points with the base-case and the optimum scenario. Herein, orange point indicates the
base-case at 1200 °F and cumulative oil production was calculated as 3.78E+8 bbls. the redpoint represents
the optimum point which was achieved at the temperature of 876 °F. At this point, the cumulative oil
production was about 4.02E+8 bbls. A horde of blue points are the 100 trial points.
16 IPTC-20134-MS

Figure 16—Optimization of cumulative oil for temperature parameter of the active model

In Figure 17., the effect of injector quality in cumulative oil production is analyzed for the active model.
The figure shows the orange point as base-case of the active model at 0.8 of injector quality and the
cumulative oil at 3.78E+8 bbls, meanwhile, a bunch light blue lines are 100 trials of running passive model.
The optimum point that represented in red label is achieved at 900 °F and 4.02E+8 bbls.

Figure 17—Optimization of cumulative oil for injector quality parameter of the active model
IPTC-20134-MS 17

Figure 18. displays the 100 trials of the active model (the bands with the blue lines) for the change of
cumulative oil production of a multilateral well within ten years. The base-case scenario shown as black
band and the optimum case is dark red color.

Figure 18—Cumulative oil versus time of active model

Figure 19. shows the tornado chart for crucial parameters of the model. Herein, the maximum cumulative
oil can be reached up to 4.02E+8 bbls, and minimum at 3.47E+8 bbls. It shows that the primary effect of
oil recovery comes from the rock compressibility and then the temperature injector follows it. Permeability
alteration due to heating also affects the amount of cumulative oil production.

Figure 19—Tornado chart of a various parameter versus cumulative oil

Following the identification of active model parameters and the effect of these parameters on cumulative
oil production, models by using passive devices performed. Figure 20. shows cumulative oil production
change with the temperature injection parameter for passive model. The result of base-case scenario is
given with orange color (1065 °F and 2.91E+8 bbls of cumulative oil production). optimum case scenario
18 IPTC-20134-MS

represented with the red color (1052.75 °F and 3.22E+8 bbls of cumulative oil production), and 100 trials
with the blue dots.

Figure 20—Optimization of cumulative oil for temperature parameter in the passive model

Figure 21. shows the change of cumulative oil production with the quality of injector and orange point
indicates the base-case scenario of the passive model at 0.92 with the cumulative oil production of 2.91E+8
bbls. Meanwhile, a bunch of light blue lines is 100 trials of running a passive model. The optimum point,
which represented by the red dot, is achieved at 0.682 with the 3.22E+8 bbls cumulative oil production.

Figure 21—Optimization of cumulative oil for injector quality parameter in the passive model
IPTC-20134-MS 19

Figure 22. gives the cumulative oil production changes in ten years of time with the passive model usage.
Similar to Figure 18., the base-case scenario is given with the black color line, and the optimum case as
dark red color one. Additionally, the 100 trials of the passive model are exhibited as blue line bands.

Figure 22—Cumulative oil versus time of the passive model

Figure 23. represents the tornado chart for the crucial model parameters with the usage of passive devices.
It shows that the passive model has strongly affected by the rock compressibility that gives an influence
into the cumulative oil, whereas other parameters are not significant to affect either the maximum or
minimum cumulative values. Additionally, Figure 24., and Figure 25. exhibit the active model in 2D and
3D perspective; while, Figure 26. and Figure 27. is showing the 2D and 3D views of the passive model.

Figure 23—Tornado chart of a various parameter versus cumulative oil

20 IPTC-20134-MS

Figure 24—2D view active devices model

Figure 25—3D view active devices model

IPTC-20134-MS 21

Figure 26—2D view passive devices model

Figure 27—Figure 11 3D view passive devices model

Results and Conclusions

Performed simulations by using the models which includes active and passive device usage, the study
achieved the following results;

• Usage of active devices has a great influence on cumulative oil production (up to 80 MMbbls)

• Usage of active devices also strongly effect the oil rates in daily basis (up to 15%) compared with
the passive device usage.
22 IPTC-20134-MS

• Description of the optimized cases of temperature injectors in both active and passive models are
crucial as it has an influence on the cumulative oil production (up to 7%).
• The description of the injector quality value which gives the best cumulative oil production is also
an important step which affects the results of recovery compared with the base case scenario.
• Cumulative oil production by time simulated with a series of trials for both active and passive
devices in ten years of time. It is a crucial step that describes the highest expected recovery and
apply the precautions to maximize the oil production.
• Tornado charts which show the effects of each parameter on cumulative oil production given in
the study. It showed that the rock compressibility has the strongest effect for both cases.
• 2D and 3D comparison of the active device case that uses electrical heating and the passive case
which does not have any heating compared in detail.

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