In this paper, a detailed mathematical model of EM (electromagnetic) heating for EOR (enhanced oil recovery) is presented. The model takes into consideration three different designs of the array of EM sources under the constraint of the dimensions, dielectric constituents, and geophysics properties of oil reservoirs. This includes a simple waveguide antenna, an E-plane spectral horn antenna of different dimensions and an array of waveguide antennas with and without deflected phases. Simulation studies have been performed at frequencies of 915 MHz, 2450 MHz and 5800 MHz for the three aforementioned designs under different combinations of the placement, positioning, and orientation of antennas. Furthermore, an experimental verification of the suggested model is addressed by designing and building a new experimental setup which has the advantage to mimic more realistically real oil reservoirs as compared to microwave ovens. These latest which were mainly used as the test platform by other researchers feature substantial differences with oil field reservoirs. The corresponding results indicate a good matching (i.e. 95% matching) with the suggested model, while outperforming other traditional enhanced oil recovery techniques. This leads to state that EM-based EOR can be a good alternative to the other existing techniques. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.