Gas Technology Institute (GTI) today unveiled a new research facility at its Des Plaines headquarters campus for evaluating the use of laser energy to improve various well construction and completion processes. Laser technology holds significant promise as a less costly and more efficient alternative to rotary drilling for constructing gas and oil wells and for related processes that prepare wells for operation. GTI has studied several military laser systems for possible use as an alternative to rotary drilling in constructing wells. Tests from 1997 to 1999 showed that these megawatt-size lasers have more than enough power to break, melt, or vaporize rock, penetrate rock more rapidly than conventional drilling, and even increase the permeability of rock, which would improve gas flow from the surrounding formation into a wellbore.