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Abstract
The oil sand deposits of
northeastern Alberta, Canada, are
estimated to contain more oil than all of the recoverable conventional oil in
the entire world. The oil is held in the formation in the form of bitumen, a
very viscous tar-like substance that is virtually, a solid at typical
reservoir temperatures. This paper describes a process, based on transmission
line excitation of the formation, whereby recovery of the bitumen would be
made possible by electromagnetically heating the formation at frequencies
ranging from a few kilohertz to several megahertz. Such heating would reduce
the viscosity of the bitumen at the point where it can flow and be swept from
the host formation by a suitable gas or fluid driving agent. Experimental
results from physical scale models of the process are presented.
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