Heating bitumen with electrical current

Using the casing as the conductor

What if you could heat a heavy oil zone without injecting any steam? Think of the capital cost you could save by skipping the boilers.

One operator proposes to heat a bitumen zone using electrical current. He's using the casing as the conductor. If it works, it will be a much cheaper thermal solution than the SAGD projects currently underway.

Help yourself to his application documents using our secure check out.

In the past, operators have proposed electricity for heating injection fluid. They've also proposed electricity for heating production fluid so it can be lifted out of the well easier. Many other down-hole uses of electricity have also been proposed in the past.

You can find all the electric heating applications using the search box of AppIntel. You can use it to search for electric in-situ heating or electric heating bitumen.

Using AppIntel to search for other applications this way can help you interpret requirements for such an application. By reading the Supplemental Information Requests issued by the regulator, you can find out what issues are important to them in the approval process.

You might find that similar technology has already been field tested. You might learn from someone else's application technical aspects you hadn't considered.

By reading others' applications, you can also find out how long it takes to approve such applications. Imagine how it might affect your project if you knew that approval of this scheme type takes three years.

Tags: Thermal, Heavy Oil

  22 Aug 2016

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