MILLIMETER WAVE DRILLING IN OIL AND GAS
The oil and gas industry has relied on mechanical rotary drilling for generations, and it has served the sector well in tapping into sedimentary reservoirs around the world. Yet as companies chase deeper, hotter, and tougher formations, traditional methods start to show their limits. Bit wear accelerates, trips to replace equipment take longer and cost more, and penetration rates drop sharply in hard rock or high-pressure, high-temperature zones. Millimeter wave drilling could change that. Instead of grinding rock mechanically, this emerging technology uses powerful electromagnetic beams to heat, melt, and vaporize it. Four pictures taken during a recent test of a microwave drilling technique developed by Quaise Energy. Source: Quaise Energy. The idea grew out of work at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Researchers there, including Paul Woskov, took gyrotrons originally built for fusion experiments and turned them toward drilling. These devices produce intense millimeter waves i...