Method for hydrocarbon resource recovery including actuator operated positioning of an RF applicator and related apparatus

A method of hydrocarbon resource recovery from a subterranean formation comprising:

• forming a plurality of spaced apart injector/producer well pairs in the subterranean formation, each injector/producer well pair comprising a laterally extending producer well and a laterally extending injector well spaced thereabove;
• determining whether a given injector/producer well pair has failed;
• forming an intermediate well between the injector well and the producer well in the given injector/producer well pair after determining the given injector/producer well pair has failed;
• determining at least one failure location associated with the given injector/producer well pair by at least creating a profile of hydraulic communication between the given injector/producer well pair along a length thereof and after determining whether the given injector/producer well pair has failed;
• operating a positioning actuator to position a radio frequency (RF) applicator coupled to the positioning actuator within the intermediate well adjacent the at least one failure location based upon the profile of hydraulic communication;
• supplying RF energy to the RF applicator within the intermediate well to selectively heat at least one corresponding portion of the subterranean formation adjacent the at least one failure location;
• and
• recovering hydrocarbon resources from the plurality of injector/producer well pairs including the given injector/producer well pair.