Investigation of Source Rock Heating and Structural Changes in the Electromagnetic Fields Using Experimental and Mathematical Modeling

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an experimental study of heating and the structural resultant changes of source rocks under the influence of the electromagnetic field in the microwave and radio-frequency ranges. The samples from the Bazhenov Formation (West Siberia, Russia) and the Domanic Formation (Ural, Russia) have been tested. It is shown that samples from these formations demonstrate very different heating rates at the same electromagnetic field parameters and the their heating rate depends on the type of the electromagnetic field (radio-frequency or microwave) applied. The temperature of the Bazhenov Formation samples reaches 300 °C within one hundred seconds of the microwave treatment but it slowly rises to 200 °C after twelve minutes of the radio-frequency influence. The samples of the carbonate Domanic Formation heat up more slowly in the microwave field (within two hundred seconds) and to lower temperatures in the radio-frequency (150 °C) than the Bazhenov Formation samples. The study of the structure of the samples before and after experiments on the electromagnetic treatment shows fracture formation during the heating process. Numerical simulations of heating dynamics of source rock samples have been based on a simple mathematical model of the electromagnetic influence and main features of heating for different types of source rock have been revealed. The opportunities for application of electromagnetic heating for oil source rock recovery are discussed.