June 5 – Acceleware Ltd. (“Acceleware” or the “Company”), today announced the launch of AxHeat, a modeling application that enables heavy oil producers to accurately model the impact of using radio frequency (RF) heating to mobilize in situ heavy oil reserves.

RF heating uses electromagnetic energy to mobilize bitumen and heavy oil for production, most notably offering a potentially viable method of production for many stranded assets.  According to simulations conducted by Acceleware and others, RF heating offers a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to existing extraction techniques because it is expected to require less energy to operate and can be used without the addition of water or solvent.

This emerging thermal recovery technology is potentially attractive in a range of different geologies and reservoir formations including:

• Shallow reservoirs – RF heating can operate with or without a cap rock or other containment structure required for steam
• Cracked and fractured reservoirs, such as carbonates – RF heating efficiently delivers heat to the reservoir directly around the antenna and does not suffer heat loss through cracks or fractures.
• Deep or thin reservoirs – RF heating can be used at depths and in formations where steam is not viable
• High water saturation reservoirs with unfavourable mobility ratio
• Oil sands and bitumen – RF heating could replace or work with steam injection

AxHeat seamlessly integrates Computer Modelling Group Ltd.’s STARS reservoir simulation platform with Acceleware’s electromagnetic simulator to accurately model the heating process within a reservoir. The application tracks both the petrophysical and electromagnetic properties of the reservoir as they evolve over time, dynamically adjusting heating patterns, fluid temperatures, pressures, viscosities, etc. in response to electromagnetic radiation. AxHeat can be used to simulate a wide range of reservoir formations and well geometries.

The Acceleware team is currently working with a growing list of companies with heavy oil reserves around the globe who are looking for new ways to cleanly and efficiently increase the production from these assets.  Project activities completed to date include: antenna design, system design, RF generator selection, modeling and monitoring of reservoirs and comparative studies.  Acceleware today released a whitepaper that provides an overview of RF heating deployment options along with a preliminary economic analysis comparing RF heating to steam and other electrical heating processes.  The analysis predicts that RF heating could use as little as one half of the energy of conductive electrical heating and one third of the energy of SAGD.  To download the whitepaper visit www.acceleware.com.

“We are excited to introduce AxHeat and believe it will be a catalyst to help Acceleware realize the significant growth potential for RF heating in today’s market,” said Geoff Clark, CEO of Acceleware.  “With unconventional reserves such as heavy oil and oil sands representing 70% of global reserves and growing, we see staggering potential for RF heating to cleanly and effectively produce these assets.” 

About Acceleware

Acceleware (www.acceleware.com) develops high performance seismic imaging and modeling software products and provides innovative technology for radio frequency (RF) heating, an emerging thermal enhanced oil recovery method. As experts in programming for multi-core CPUs and massively parallel GPUs, Acceleware’s professional services team specializes in accelerating computationally intense applications for clients to speed up product design, analyze data and help make better business decisions.  Acceleware’s products and services are used by some of the world’s largest energy and engineering companies.

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Source: Acceleware