[JohnDenver]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Laser beams soon may be drilling oil and gas wells

14-01-04 A revolutionary method for using laser beams to drill oil and gas wells moved a step closer to reality in the laboratories of the Colorado School of Mines.
The university announced it has acquired six laser technology patents from Boeing in a major step forward in the transfer of military laser uses to civilian applications. If the adaptation of technology borrowed from Reagan-era "Star Wars" military programs is successful, it will mark the first fundamental change to rotary drilling techniques since the concept was invented in Britain in 1845.

[...]

Laser drilling, Graves said, would have several advantages over conventional drilling:
-- Costs could be at least 10 times lower and up to several hundred times less than wells drilled with rotary rigs. For example, a typical, 10,000-foot gas well in Wyoming's Wind River Basin costs about $ 350,000 to drill. Laser drilling would drop that cost to $ 35,000 or lower, Graves said.
-- A laser drill's "footprint" -- the amount of surface space it occupies -- could be as little as 100 square feet, or even less with some models.
-- The laser rigs could be transported to drilling sites in one semi-trailer load. Conventional rigs take up several thousand square feet of space and require numerous truck trips to haul equipment.
-- Lasers could drill a typical natural-gas well in about 10 days, compared with 100 days for some conventional wells.
"You're looking at three months of disruption versus a week or so of disruption with a laser drill," Graves said.
-- Lasers could be programmed for precise well diameters and depths. In addition, they could alternately drill coarsely to deliver mineral samples, finely to vaporize rock and leave no waste materials, or with intense heat to melt the walls of well bores, thus eliminating the need to place steel casing in wells.

[DriveElectric]

Wow. That is very impressive. Any sort of time frame when such lasers might be applied in a commercial oil field?

[Antimatter]

Prototype in two years according to the article, so still a way off. If it works out as well as claimed this would be excellent news for hot dry rock geothermal, as the main capital cost is in drilling the deep wells.

[JBinKC]

Better yet anything on any public corporate entity who owns the patents to the process. I am sure they are going to make a mint.

[0mar]

lol this is the revolution in drilling technology that I keep talking about.

Depending on when a feasible model can be put out and how well it actually does vs PR speak, it could potentially delay the peak for quite a while.

[Devil]

I'll keep an open mind on this until it has been proven as viable. I think it will have one small but surmountable problem: there will inevitably be ignition as HCs hit molten rock, where air has reached it. It probably means the well being drilled will have to be pressurised with nitrogen. Not a big deal. The obvious disadvantage is that drilling must be in a straight line: many conventionally drilled wells "turn a corner" when they get to the oleofers or gazofers to get faster seepage or to exploit otherwise inaccessible "pockets". One big potential advantage would be a sturdier borehole as there would probably be no need for a metal lining because the periphery would be vitrified in many strata. I'd be a little worried about going through chalk, marble, limestone or dolomite strata, as these would decompose into reactive quicklime or magnesium oxide and not vitrify. If water seeped down to those levels, an exothermic reaction would occur.

[dmtu]

I'd say directional drilling will not take a back seat. The "production shaft" would be drilled with laser then a conventional rig could be brought in for all the fancy stuff done below the anhydrous cap. I'm sure John D will keep us up to date.

[Devil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dmtu', 'I')'d say directional drilling will not take a back seat. The "production shaft" would be drilled with laser then a conventional rig could be brought in for all the fancy stuff done below the anhydrous cap. I'm sure John D will keep us up to date.

[Triffin]

Check this out from 1998 ..
Two laser drilling techniques ..
COIL and MIRACL ..

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/features/fex81417.htm

Seven years later and nary a peep from the oil
drilling industry ... hmmmm ..

Here's more ..

http://www.drilleronline.com/CDA/Articl ... %2C00.html

And this article addresses the technical difficulties ..

http://blowout.crystalgravity.com/laser.pdf


Triff ..

[eric_b]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnDenver', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Laser beams soon may be drilling oil and gas wells

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')lthough Boeing still has an interest in lasers for military and aerospace applications, it was not using the earlier technologies.
"Rather than let these things lie around dormant, we wanted them to go where there would be good applications," said Boeing spokesman Glen Golightly.

[Pops]

This would be good news certainly for oil companies.

Just as the big increases in oil price over the last years has dramatically increased the amount of oil on the market by making once unprofitable fields now viable.

[JohnDenver]

FAQ by Ramona Graves on her research:
http://www.mines.edu/laser/FAQ.htm

The direct diode laser (DDL) she is currently using is 4000 watts. She doesn't provide a specific energy for the DDL, but the figure for an Nd:YAG laser is about 6kJ/cm3. So if we were to use a 4000watt Nd:YAG laser, and drill a hole with a diameter of 1.12cm into rock, we could cut down 1cm in 1.5sec. So a 300,000cm (10,000 foot) hole could be drilled in 450,000sec =125hours.

That's definitely fast drilling. The main problem, as Ms. Graves notes in her FAQ, is getting the laser down the hole. The earliest lasers for testing were huge:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he size of lasers varies from the US Army's MIRACL which is the size of a small refinery to the Direct Diode laser which is about of the size of a shoe box (shown below). The US Air Force COIL has been miniaturized, as part of the airborne laser defense system, to operate inside a Boeing 747.

[JohnDenver]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'T')his would be good news certainly for oil companies.

[dmtu]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Devil', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dmtu', 'I')'d say directional drilling will not take a back seat. The "production shaft" would be drilled with laser then a conventional rig could be brought in for all the fancy stuff done below the anhydrous cap. I'm sure John D will keep us up to date.

[Devil]

Well (pun intended :D ), it's all speculation at this stage anyway. As I said in my first post, I'll keep an open mind until this idea is proven as viable, technically and economically.

[What2DO]

Hello Im not sure if this topic has been posted on P.O yet, if it has just delete this post.

I would like to know what you guys think of this technology will it help much?Laser Drilling

[kokoda]

I have two questions.

How much energy would be required?

And what happens when you hit a gas pocket?

[mrflora]

Note what the article says:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow researchers believe that state-of-the-art lasers have the potential to penetrate rock 10 to 100 times faster than conventional boring technologies -- a huge benefit in reducing drilling costs.

And, obviously, reducing drilling costs could make previously uneconomic gas or oil reserves commercially viable.

[IslandCrow]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mrflora', '
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ow researchers believe that state-of-the-art lasers have the potential to penetrate rock 10 to 100 times faster than conventional boring technologies -- a huge benefit in reducing drilling costs. /quote]