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To: Alan Gallaspy who wrote (17612)	5/20/1998 9:25:00 PM
From: Bollmonster	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

<OT: Laser-Drilled Wells> Alan, I have to disagree with part of what you said. Maintaining pressure to prevent a blowout is key, but there are other ways to do it without using a liquid. I'm not saying that these other ways are cheaper than liquid, but I think the far more significant problem involves the energy requirements and removing the vaporized rock, etc., like Zeev discussed earlier. An interesting additional thought to laser drilling is that one of the biggest time consumers during drilling is replacing a broken / worn down bit or broken drill string. Pulling out a mile of pipe in 40' segments takes a while. You'd have to think that you wouldn't be bashing a laser into the rock, so it wouldn't break and you wouldn't lose the time. There is the additional problem, then, of running the laser power through a mile worth of cabling...talk about power losses. (Or will they not be bad?) Any EEs out there that can help with that one? Bollmonster