Electrical resistive heating provides key advantages over other thermal methods in the recovery of heavy-oil resources. However, the recovery efficiency with electrical heating is relatively lower compared with more-conventional methods such as cyclic steam stimulation, steamflooding, and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) because it does not introduce a (pressure) drive mechanism and the radius of effect is relatively small, which may result in marginal economics. In this study, the application of electrical resistance heating on multilateral wells is studied in order to illustrate the enhanced physical and economic benefits of the method in such a setting.
Smart Tools in Multilateral Wells
Placement of a multilateral well is a decision that must be considered carefully. The easiest method of determining whether the approach is the right one for a field is to analogize multilateral wells with the traditional single-bore wells that penetrate to the same formation area.
