LOW DIELECTRIC ZONE FOR HYDROCARBON RECOVERY BY DIELECTRIC HEATING

Embodiments include drilling a wellbore in a hydrocarbon-bearing formation, and the wellbore includes a radio frequency antenna destination portion that is configured to receive a radio frequency antenna; forming a low dielectric zone in the hydrocarbon-bearing formation proximate to the radio frequency antenna destination portion with a cavity based process or a squeezing based process; positioning the radio frequency antenna into the radio frequency antenna destination portion such that the radio frequency antenna is proximate to the low dielectric zone; dielectric heating the hydrocarbon-bearing formation with the radio frequency antenna such that the low dielectric zone increases dissipation of energy from the radio frequency antenna into the hydrocarbon-bearing formation; and extracting hydrocarbons from the heated hydrocarbon-bearing formation. The material has a dielectric constant of less than or equal to 20, a loss tangent of less than or equal to 0.4, and a porosity of less than or equal to 5%.