Comparative Analysis of Mineral Insulated Cable Heating Schemes in Ultra-deep Heavy Oil Wells

Abstract

Heavy oil is very sensitive to the temperature. When the temperature in the well decreases, the viscosity of the heavy oil will increase exponentially, and even solidify, reducing the exploitation efficiency. In order to improve the exploitation efficiency of ultra-deep heavy oil well, the mathematical model of wellbore temperature distribution is established based on the heat transfer theory of heating wellbore and energy conservation principle. And the influence of ‘‘bottom hole heating’’ and ‘‘tubing combined heating’’ on wellbore temperature distribution is compared and analyzed. The results show that when the bottom hole of the mineral insulated cable is heated, the large amount of heat is lost from the formation. And it is difficult to transfer to the wellhead, resulting in the large viscosity of the heavy oil at the wellhead, and the heating viscosity reduction effect is not obvious. When the combination of the mineral insulated cable tubing is heated, the temperature of the heavy oil is above the inflection point temperature, and the viscosity of the heating section is significantly reduced, which can achieve a good effect of heavy oil exploitation.