Perforacion Con Laser

Laser Rock Drilling by A Super-Pulsed CO2 Laser Beam Z. Xu and C. B. Reed Technology Development Division, Argonne National Laboratory Argonne, Illinois 60540 R.A. Parker Packer Geoscience Consulting, LLC, Golden, Colorado 80403 B. C. Gahan Gas Technology Institute, Des Plaines, IL 60018 R. M. Graves Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401 H. Figueroa Petroleos de Venezuela INTEVEP,S.A., Caracas 1070A, Venezuela

The submitted manuscript has been created by the University of Chicago as Operator of Argonne National Laboratory under contract No.W-31-109-ENG-38 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works,distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.

Abstract High power carbon dioxide lasers have successfully been used in drilling or cutting engineering materials such as metals, polymers and ceramics over the years. Can a carbon dioxide laser be used to efficiently drill different rocks in a deep gas well? Research sponsored by USDepartment of Energy has been carried out to answer this question. This paper will report the study results of using a super-pulsed CO2 laser beam to drill rocks. A 6 kW CO2 laser operated at superpulse mode was used to carry out the tests. Both linear tracks and deep holes were produced on the rocks. The energy required to remove a unit volume of rock, specific energy, was determined. Test resultsshow that superpulsed CO2 laser beam can be efficiently used to drill deep, large diameter holes in petroleum rocks with the assistance of purging gas. Key words: CO2 laser, rock drilling, specific energy Introduction Rock destruction and removal is a significant issue in the process of oil and gas development. Over the years, billions of cubic meter of rock have been removed with tremendouscapital investment. In 1999, approximately 20,000 wells were drilled onshore in the United States, averaging about 1830 meters deep, at a cost of nearly $15 billion. This is equivalent to approximately 37,000 kilometers, or nearly three times the diameter of the Earth (12,756 meters).

Laser technology applied to drilling and completion operations has the potential to reduce drilling time, eliminatethe necessity to remove and dispose of drilling cuttings and improve well performance through improved perforation operations. In 1997 the Gas Technology Institute initiated a two-year research program and successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using high power lasers for drilling and completing oil and natural gas wells [1]. Building on this, the U.S. Department of Energy funded the nextphase to more fully investigate the basic scientific principles that can bring this laser drilling and completions concept within reach of an industry-supported prototype development. As a part of the basic scientific study, laser beam wavelength effect on rock removal has been studied. Two wavelengths studied are 10.6 µm from a 6 kW CO2 laser and 1.06 µm from an 1.6 kW pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Thispaper will report the results from a 10.6 µm CO2 beam interacting with petroleum rocks when it operates under superpulse operation mode. Comparison of the results obtained under continuous wave and superpulse operation mode is also presented. Three operation modes of the CO2 laser The CO2 laser used in the study can be operated under three different operation modes: continuous wave (CW), normalpulse (NP), and superpulsed pulse (SPP). CW mode When the laser is used in this mode, it continuously outputs a laser beam at the pre-selected power and beam transverse mode. A safety shutter at default close position directs the laser beam into a beam dumper when the laser beam is not used for processing. This hot-standby feature guarantees a stable and high quality beam can be delivered whenever...