LA S ER D R ILLIN G

D rilling for O iland G as in the U S

1990 GRI Study on Drilling Costs

MajorCategories %ofTotalTime
MakingHole 48
ChangingBits 27
AndSteelCasing

Well&Formation
Characteristics 25
TotalDrillingTime 100% .

H igh-energy Laser Applications

Laserscouldplay
asignificantrole
asavertical
boring&
perforatingtoolin
gaswelldrilling

System Vision
Laser on surface or within drilling tubing

applies infrared energy to the working

face of the borehole.
The downhole assembly includes sensors
that measure standard geophysical
formation information, as well as
imaging of the borehole wall, all in real
time.
Excavated material is circulated to the
surface as solid particles

 When desired, some or all of the

excavated material is melted and

forced into and against the wall rock.
The ceramic thus formed can replace
the steel casing currently used to
line well bores to stabilize the well
and to control abnormal pressures.

 When the well bore reaches its target

depth, the well is completed by using

the same laser emergy to perforate
through the ceramic casing.
All this is done in one pass without
removing the drill string from the
hole.

M IRACL Sim ulated PerfShot

Atwoinchlaserbeamissenttothesideofasandstone
sampletosimulateahorizontaldrillingapplication.

M IRACL Sim ulated Borehole

Shot

Afterafoursecondexposureto
thebeam,aholeisblastedthrough
thesandstonesample,removing
sixpoundsofmaterial.

AD VAN TAG E
Laser drilling saves a lot of workers' time in

drilling an oil well. Normal drilling operations

take a lot of time and a lot of equipments
while laser drilling can drill it easily with much
less equipment. Laser drilling can penetrate
the at 10 to 100 times faster than the typical
drilling process, because there is no need to
cut the rock, because the laser bit does not
touch the rock, it melts it instead. Moreover, it
reduces cost of the total drilling operations
and provides enough energy to cut the rock.

 Laser Drilling technique can drill at any

angle. Drilling the rock at any angle is an

important feature at the present time. That
is because this feature means there is no
need to bring a lot of equipment to drill
horizontally, because now most of the
wells are drilled horizontally or drilled
using the "Directional Drilling" method. It
is also important, because most of time is
used in drilling horizontally, which needs a
lot of equipment to do so.

 Another Advantage of laser drilling is, it needs

thermal energy to drill petroleum wells.

However, normal drilling needs lubricating
substance called drilling mud which lubricates
rotary equipment. Its function is to lubricate
the bit, provide a sufficient hydrostatic
pressure, clean the hole.
Laser drilling does not need all that. It will be
a lot more neater than the normal drilling
because it will not need mud. Moreover, it
melts the rock and creates a ceramic coat.
That means, it does not break it, which means
it does not need much work to the fragments
after drilling.

D ISAD VAN TAG E

Laser rock drilling uses optical

energy that transforms into thermal

energy to melt the rock (formation).
However, petroleum is a highly
flammable substance. Therefore,
using laser as a drilling bit can be
highly dangerous if not used
carefully. That is before reaching the
oil zone, the bit must be removed
and then replacing it by a normal
drilling bit.

 Unfortunately, Laser can only drill

shallow holes. According to

petroleum engineering text books,
the average depth is 6000 ft.

 One of the major drawbacks of laser

drilling is that it needs huge amounts

of energy to be operated (6:2).
Therefore, depending on the
previous disadvantage, it needs a lot
of energy to drill only shallow holes.

SPECIFIC EN ERGY
S.E. = P*t/v
P = power, in watts
t = time in seconds
v = volume of rock removed

CO N CLU SIO N

SE for Shale 10x Less Than SS or LS

Pulsed Lasers Cut Faster & With Less Energy
Than Continuous Wave Lasers.
Fluid Saturated Rocks Cut Faster Than Dry
Rocks.

Possible Mechanisms Include:

More Rapid Heat Transfer Away From the

Cutting Face Suppressing Melting
Steam Expansion of Water
Contributing to Spallation

LATEST U PD ATES
The first well will be drilled in 2016
Research is been going on to find out

what type of mud will be used, if not

air drilling will be done
A single casing will be run through to
put the well head and install packer
and tubing
The speed of drilling would be
around 750 ft/hr