SPE-195324-MS

Further Investigation of Downhole Heating by an Electric Cable

Mason M. Medizade and Zach Wiltshire, California Polytechnic State University

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Western Regional Meeting held in San Jose, California, USA, 23-26 April 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
Heat is an important component in heavy oil production. One method includes generation of electric current
using solar panels or other methods and converting electricity into heat for surface or downhole applications
via an electric cable. The heat can help removal of paraffin, wax or hydrate in the production tubing, removal
of heat sensitive skins in and around perforations and reduction of oil viscosity in the reservoir zone. The
objectives of this study are to present the results obtained from a finite element model study including
the cable, well, and the reservoir. Reported results are in continuation of our previous study reported in
SPE-185736-MS in 2017. The study uses a commercial finite element model. The model consists of the
production tubing, cable, well and the porous media as the reservoir zone. The wellbore fluid is different
gases or mostly water. The cable is attached to the production tubing's sides and immersed in well fluid
in different lengths. The model solves the two-dimensional heat of conduction equation providing same
temperature distributions obtained from other analytical methods. Following parameters are changed using
a fixed cable heat density, W/m: well fluids, length of cable immersed, cable orientation, cable lengths,
reservoir thermal conductivity and reservoir porosity. The finite element model runs are obtained for vertical
well at different model mesh sizes. The best results were reported. In case of stagnant gas surrounding
the electric cable, the sand face of the well heats up very quickly. However, transfer of heat up to many
meters into the reservoir continues at a slower pace. Similar results are obtained for both vertical as well
as horizontal wells. Thermal conductivity of the porous media and its specific heat and density plays an
important role in heat transfer and distribution in the reservoir zone. If water is surrounding the cable
and given its thermodynamic states of pressure and temperature is allowed to reach near boiling, the
heat transfer to the reservoir naturally can be accelerated due to initiation of latent heat of vaporization
and its transfer to the reservoir. This study will present all the new finite element runs obtained and the
temperature distributions as a function of time and radial distances into the reservoir. Heat is always needed
in production of heavy oils worldwide and specifically in California as steam injection faces its own
operational challenges. The technology of electric heating needs to be understood and cables needed to be
designed properly and effectively. If that happens many deeper and larger heavy oil zones can be produced
more economically. Like other similar studies, this study will help design evolution needed for more rugged
and robust and effective downhole heaters.
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Introduction
With advancements and more applications of renewable energies such as solar and wind the oilfield
operations can now benefit from these types of electricity generation for different use. One of these
applications is use of electrical cables for surface as well as downhole to heat up flowline, pipeline, wellbore
tubing and the reservoir zone near the wellbore. The propagation of heat can take place as conduction
or a combination of conduction and convection if the in situ water in the reservoir can be vaporized (1).
Understanding the conduction heat transfer specifically for downhole applications is the most important
component in calculating temperature distributions away from the wellbore. The goal is to lower crude oil
viscosity in the reservoir and remedy formation of hydrate and wax as fluids move from the reservoir into
well perforations, tubing and flowlines. Low voltage, below 1000 V and medium voltage heating have been
successfully used in offshore applications preventing wax and hydrate formation assuring flow (2,3,4,5,6).
The technology has also been used or considered in many other onshore applications such as pipeline
networks (7), ESP production system (8), SAGD projects to lower cost of steam circulation (9, 10, 11),
high water cut production to promote oil mobility (12). This method of heating has been considered in
oilfields across the world such as California, Venezuela, Colombia, and Sudan (13, 14, and 15). This study
has utilized a FEA commercial package to help understand the heating process in different conditions.

FEA Model
Assuming that the tubing, casing and cement sheet have negligible effects on the conductivity of the
heat transfer from the heating element, the well bore was simplified to the heating element and the fluid
surrounding the element in the well bore as well as the saturated porous media surrounding the well. The
top view of the wellbore can be seen in Figure 1 with the porous media surrounding the well bore. In the
simulation, the porous media placed on each side of the well for 30m and was modeled as sand saturated
with oil and water.

Figure 1—The well bore consists of the heating element with a 0.01m
diameter surrounded by the fluid inside the wellbore with a 0.089m diameter.

The heating element will transfer heat to the fluid inside the well and through the porous media through
conduction. Using Fourier's Law for the heat diffusion equation for conductive heat transfer can be written
in Equation 1 (16).

(1)

Where k is the thermal conductivity, T is the temperature, ρ is the density, and cp is the specific heat,
and q is the heat generated. For the model several additional assumptions were made to simplify the model.
Although the heating element will transfer heat radially outward in three directions the model was simplified
SPE-195324-MS 3

to a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. Secondly, with no heat generated inside the porous media
and constant properties, the Equation 1 simplifies to Equation 2.

(2)

Alpha, α, is the ratio between the thermal conductivity and the heat capacity as can be seen in Equation
3. If a material has a high thermal conductivity it will react quickly to changes in temperature, where as a
low thermal conductivity material will respond much slower. The properties of the well fluids and porous
media that were used for the simulation can be seen in Table 1 (17).

(3)

Table 1—The properties of the air and porous medium that were used in the
simulation. The properties were assumed to be independent of temperature2.

Several assumptions were made in regards to the heating element power output. In reality, the power
the heating element will emit radially outward in the cylindrical wellbore through the surface of the porous
medium. For the two dimensional model, the power output of the heating element was assumed to be a
constant heat flux with half of the total heat flux acting on the each side of the fluid in the wellbore. That
cable orientation was used in all runs. In the simulation, the magnitude of the heat flux, and properties of
the well fluid and porous media can be easily changed and re run for a variety of conditions and loads.

Results
Using the properties shown in Table 1, the finite element model was run using a commercial FEA package.
If the heating element provides 400W/m of power, each side of the well is assumed to receive 200W/m.
Example of the temperature distribution for a 600 day simulation for a power density of 400 W/m simulation
can be seen in Figure 2.
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Figure 2—Nodal temperature distribution after a 600 day simulation of 400W/m heat flux applied to the well bore
SPE-195324-MS 5

The simulation results are shown in Figures 3 to 27.

Figure 3—Temperature distributions for 100 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid.

Figure 4—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid.
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Figure 5—Temperature distributions for 600 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid.

Figure 6—Temperature distributions for 800 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid.
SPE-195324-MS 7

Figure 7—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CO2 as reservoir fluid.

Figure 8—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CH4 as reservoir fluid.
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Figure 9—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having water as reservoir fluid.

Figure 10—Temperature distributions for 100 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.
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Figure 11—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.

Figure 12—Temperature distributions for 600 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.
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Figure 13—Temperature distributions for 800 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.

Figure 14—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CO2 as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.
SPE-195324-MS 11

Figure 15—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CH4 as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.

Figure 16—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having water as reservoir fluid and 50% lower heat conductivity.
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Figure 17—Temperature distributions for 100 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid with 50% higher heat conductivity.

Figure 18—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid with 50% higher heat conductivity.
SPE-195324-MS 13

Figure 19—Temperature distributions for 600 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid with 50% higher heat conductivity.

Figure 20—Temperature distributions for 800 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid with 50% higher heat conductivity.
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Figure 21—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CO2 as reservoir fluid and 50% higher heat conductivity.

Figure 22—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having CH4 as reservoir fluid and 50% higher heat conductivity.
SPE-195324-MS 15

Figure 23—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having water as reservoir fluid and 50% higher heat conductivity.

Figure 24—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having crude oil as reservoir fluid.
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Figure 25—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having air as reservoir fluid at reservoir porosity of 20%.

Figure 26—Temperature distributions for 400 W/m cable having reservoir fluid with reservoir porosity of 35%.
SPE-195324-MS 17

Figure 27—Temperature distributions for 400W/m cable half immersed in water (Temperatures at top of the zone).

Discussions
In all simulation runs reported here, conduction is the dominant heat mechanism responsible to transfer of
the heat from the electric heater to the reservoir. The major important conduction heat transfer parameter is
the heat diffusivity alfa which is the ratio of thermal conductivity to product of density and heat capacity
of the porous media. Reservoirs which have higher thermal conductivity and lower density and/or heat
capacity conduct the supplied heat moves faster causing lower temperatures to be generated radially. On
the other hand reservoirs having lower thermal conductivity and higher density and/or higher heat capacity
conduct the supplied heat slower causing temperature to increase radially. The simulation runs also support
the idea that depending on the power density of the electric cable, W/m, high temperatures can be obtained
so some water in situ in the reservoir could be changed into steam and moves away the wellbore causing
more heating of the reservoir zone. The heat is always get conducted in form a cylindrical surface from the
wellbore and in this type of heating there will be no gravity override similar to steam injection and the whole
payzone can be heated. Data obtained from these studies will help us design and build next generation of
downhole heaters.

Conclusions
• For all simulation runs reported, conduction is the only mechanism responsible for heat transfer
from the electric cable into the reservoir zone.
• The sand-face heats up fast but as the distance from the wellbore increases this heating slows down
drastically. So generating high temperatures away from the wellbore is matter of time and cost of
electricity needs to be lowered perhaps by renewable sources.
• Lower thermal diffusivity values of alfa produces higher regional temperatures and higher thermal
diffusivity values of alfa produces lower regional temperatures.
• Types of fluids in the wellbore has little effects on the temperature distributions obtained.

• The formation is always heated uniformly. This is an advantage compared with steam injection.

Acknowledgement
The authors like to thank Andrew Medizade for his help preparing the manuscript.
18 SPE-195324-MS

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