Research on the Temperature Distribution in Electrically Heated Offshore Heavy Oil Wellbores

Abstract

The electric heating process for lifting heavy oil has been widely applied. However, research on its temperature field laws mostly focuses on onshore heavy oil wells, while research offshore is limited. Therefore, based on the energy conservation equation and heat transfer theory, a transient one-dimensional wellbore temperature model coupled with the temperature and viscosity of heavy oil and considering the effect of time was developed. In order to verify the accuracy of the model, the results of the previous model were used for comparison with the present model, and the results showed that the model has good accuracy. The results show that a reasonable selection of the process parameters of electric heating can increase the production of heavy oil while saving development costs and improving the economic benefits of the oilfield. The conclusions and recommendations of this paper can provide a theoretical basis and guiding suggestions for the optimal design of process parameters for lifting heavy oil using an offshore electric heating process.