LASER DRILLING

MOHD SAMEER KHANR010209033

Drilling for Oil and Gas in the US

1990 GRI Study on Drilling Costs

Major Categories % of Total Time Making Hole 48

Changing Bits 27And Steel Casing

Well & Formation Characteristics 25

Total Drilling Time 100% .

High-energy Laser Applications

Lasers could play a significant role

as a vertical boring &

perforating tool in gas well drilling

 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.

MIRACL – Simulated Perf Shot

A two-inch laser beam is sent to the side of a sandstone sample to simulate a horizontal drilling application.

MIRACL – Simulated Borehole Shot

After a four-second exposure to the beam, a hole is blasted through the sandstone sample, removing six pounds of material.

ADVANTAGE

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.

DISADVANTAGE

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 ENERGY

S.E. = P*t/vP = power, in wattst = time in secondsv = volume of rock removed

CONCLUSION

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 UPDATES

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