Patent ID: 8689865

Claim:
A process comprising: drilling a borehole into a heavy oil formation comprising a frac barrier between a first pay zone and a second pay zone, wherein the frac barrier prevents a subterranean steam chamber region to be formed between the first pay zone and the second pay zone; heating the frac barrier with a microwave frequency; fracturing the frac barrier to permit the subterranean steam chamber region to be formed within the first pay zone and the second pay zone; injecting H 2 O into the subterranean steam chamber region through a first wellbore of a steam assisted gravity drainage operation; introducing microwaves into the subterranean steam chamber region at a frequency sufficient to excite the H 2 O molecules and increase the temperature of at least a portion of the H 2 O within the region to produce heated H 2 O heating at least a portion of the heavy oil in the region by contact with the heated H 2 O to produce heated heavy oil; and producing the heated heavy oil through a second wellbore of the steam assisted gravity drainage operation; thereby recovering heavy oil with the steam assisted gravity drainage operation from the subterranean steam chamber region; wherein a portion of the H 2 O is injected as steam and the steam contacts with at least a portion of the heavy oil in the subterranean steam chamber region so as to heat the portion of the heavy oil and reduce its viscosity so that it flows generally towards the second wellbore.