For the past 8 years, Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and its research partners have investigated the application of high-power laser energy for well construction and completion. Initial investigations were performed with larger military lasers to qualitatively demonstrate their feasibility for well construction. Additional work followed with less powerful, yet more practical and commercially available industrial lasers to determine rock-breaking energy requirements. In its most recent research, GTI advanced its downhole application research focusing on perforations using the most recent evolution of high-power lasers ? a 5.34-kW ytterbium-doped multiclad fiber laser. The investigation has produced promising application results as well as an extensive testing of the most likely laser device to be deployed at a well site.