The Effect of Laser Irradiation on Rock Permeability Enhancement to Improve Oil Recovery

No other scientific discovery of the 20th century has been demonstrated with so many exciting applications as laser acronym for (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). Lasers are employed over a wide range of applications from scientific research, biomedicine, and environmental sciences to industrial materials processing, microelectronics, avionics, and entertainment. Laser drilling tests showed that high power lasers have the ability of drilling good clean holes to a certain depth, at which point melting occurs and a layer of glassy phase forms. Additional laser energy either did little or created fractures due to a combination of the effects of reflecation loss from the glassy surface, heat release from the bottom edge, and poor purging. This paper will present study results on using a pulsed CO2 laser to drill through the given rock samples. Preliminary test shows that CO2 laser can drill the rock as efficiently as the other types of high power lasers and the permeability of the rock lased by pulsed CO2 laser beam increases up to 150% compared to non-lased rocks due to clay dehydration and microfractures induced by the high temperature gradient and phase transformation volume expansion generated in the rock while lasing.