Report on

WORKSHOP AND GLOBAL MARKET CONFERENCE ON

EMERGING ISSUES OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN WATER WELL DRILLING

ON 24.05.2016

Venue: CSMRS AUDITORIUM,

NEW DELHI

Organized by

Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development

and Ganga Rejuvenation Govt. of India

Report on

WORKSHOP AND GLOBAL MARKET CONFERENCE ON EMERGING ISSUES OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN WATER WELL DRILLING

ON 24.05.2016, CSMRS AUDITORIUM, NEW DELHI

Back ground

Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and

Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India has taken up Aquifer Mapping and Management

Programme with the Objective to formulate aquifer management plans in water stressed and

quality affected areas for ensuring long-term sustainability of ground water resources. As a

part of this 23 lakh Km2mappable area over the entire country are planned to be covered.

Preparation of aquifer maps and management plans requires large quantity of various type of

field data that have been generated or are to be generated through field investigations.

Exploratory drilling is one of the most critical activities for such data generation. Exploratory

drilling includes i) Collection of information regarding subsurface geology during drilling

through collection and analysis of rock and water samples; ii) Geophysical logging iii)

Construction and development of the well and iv) Tests for determination of aquifer wise

hydraulic parameters. As per data gap analysis

conducted by CGWB, nearly 24000 exploratory wells

are to be constructed during 2016-2020 to meet the

data requirements of NAQUIM. The wells are to be

constructed throughout the country in different

geological formations such as alluvium, boulders,

hard-rocks etc. In hard-rock areas, proposed depth

of exploration is 200m and in soft-rock areas

(alluvium, boulders etc.) investigation depth is

300m. CGWB has its own fleet of drilling rigs of

different types. However, given the scale of the

work and the limited timeframe, more than 20000

exploratory wells are proposed to be constructed

and data generated through outsourcing during

2016 to 2020. To take a stock of market capabilities

and emerging technology in the field of water well

drilling CGWB organized a one day workshop and

global market conference on “Emerging issues,

opportunities and challenges in water well drilling for drilling agencies, service providers & rig

manufracturers” at CSMRS, New Delhi on 24.05.2016.

Objectives

Huge quantum of data to be generated through outsourcing calls for sharing the requirements

with the various service providers/manufacturers in the drilling industry. Objectives of the

workshop is i) to deliberate upon and to assess emerging issues, opportunities and challenges

in water well drilling and related data generation; ii) to provide a platform to Government

organizations, private service providers, drilling contractors, drilling rig manufacturers and all

related stakeholders in water well drilling to share their experiences and difficulties in the

field; iii) Assessing the potential of the market in terms of equipment and capabilities for water

well drilling and related data generation in NAQUIM. The delegates from foreign embassies,

Rig manufacturing companies, and various service providers in drilling industry participated in

the workshop. The senior officers from MOWR, RD&GR, Regional Directors and Executive

Engineers of CGWB & offices from other organizations also attended the workshop. The

workshop was conducted in three sessions: Inaugural session, Technical Session and Panel

Discussion –Way forward.

Inaugural Session

Sh Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, MoWR, RD&GR, GOI chaired the inaugural session as Chief

Guest, Sh Harbans Singh, Director

General, Geological Survey of India,

graced the occasion as Guest of

Honour, other dignitaries on the dais

were Sh R D Singh, Director, NIH,

Roorkie , Sh K B Biswas, Chairman,

CGWB and Sh K C Naik, Member,

CGWB . After a formal welcome,

beginning of function is marked by

lighting of lamp by the dignitaries.

Then Sh K B Biswas, Chairman, CGWB in his address welcome the delegates and outlined the

objectives/ need for the workshop. In his speech, the silent features of NAQUIM and

expectations from the workshop were also mentioned.

In his remarks as special guest to the

occasion, Sh Harbans Singh, Director

General, GSI, appreciated the timely effort

made by ministry to map the aquifers of the

country. He ensured all possible help in this

gigantic effort and highlighted the need of

locating artificial recharge structures on

identified palaeochannels across the country

for augmenting the ground water. Sh R D

Singh, Director, NIH, Roorkie ensured

continued support to NAQUIM. He

mentioned the long association of NIH and

CGWB in there endeavors.

Sh Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, MoWR,

RD&GR, GOI in his inaugural address

narrated the expectations of country from

NAQUIM. He emphasised the need for finalization

of Aquifer Management Plan (AMP) in a time bound

manner. He advised converge all the major

activities of CGWB to the NAQUIM. He added,

special attention is required to map the dried out

aquifers, solving the hydrogeological issues as per

the local aquifer setups, locating the artificial

recharge structures of ground water correctly.

NAQUIM should address the features like increasing

population, specific cropping pattern and water

demand in time & space for a particular area while

formulating AMP. Sh K C Naik, Member, CGWB

while thanking the delegates highlighted CGWBs

efforts towards achieving the targets of NAQUIM.

Technical Session

Inaugural session was followed by technical session, chaired by Sh Ashis Chakraborty, Member, CGWB (Retd) accompanied by Sh Bhajan Singh, Regional

Director, CGWB (Retd) as co-chair and Sh Sanjay Marwaha, Regional Director, CGWB Regional Director, CGWB assisted as rapporteur. The technical session began with the inaugural comments by the chair and co-chair. There were eight presentations in all during this session.

1 Aquifer Mapping- A Perspective Sh Sanjay Marwaha, Regional Director, CGWB

2 Water Well Drilling for Aquifer Mapping Sh. Nidhish Verma Executive Eng. CGWB

3 Technologies with BHEL Sh S C Jha, DGM, BHEL

4 Sonic Samp Drill from Netherlands Dr. Nayudu S Sunkara, CEO, LaGa Systems Pvt Ltd Hydrabad.

5 Dual Rotary Rigs of Revathi Equipment Ltd. Sh Nagraju

6 Technological advancement with KLR Industries Ltd Sh. Linu Samuel

7 Deep Water Well Drilling using Oil Field Technology Dr Ranjan Sinha ,CAIRN Energy

8 Capabilities of Geotch Equipment Ltd Hyderabad Sh Ambadas Rao

Sh Sanjay Marwaha, Regional Director, CGWB in his presentation provided the background of

NAQUIM and established the various requirements in the diverse hydrogeological terrain of

country. He presented the out of 23 lakh km2 mappable area about 9 lakh km2 area has been

mapped and 14 lakh km2 area is to be taken up

during 2017-20. Sh. Nidhish Verma Executive Engineer, CGWB apprising the participants about

the quantum of work envisaged thorough outsourcing in next three years, approach for drilling

and well construction, types of rigs and services required and general problems encountered

during drilling. Thereafter presentations were made by the Rig manufacturing companies;

service provider and PSU. Few slides of presentation are appended in the Annexure-I

Panel discussion

The Technical Session was followed by the panel discussion for deliberating and summarizing

the recommendation of the workshop having following experts

Sh. K. B. Biswas, Chairman, CGWB – In chair

Dr. D. K. Chadha, Ex- Chairman, CGWB

Dr. S C Dhiman, Ex- Chairman, CGWB

Sh. Subodh Kumar, Executive Director, ONGC

Sh. Ashis Chakraborty, Member (Retd), CGWB

Sh. Bhajan Singh, Regional Director (Retd), CGWB

Based on the presentation and panel discussions the broad outcomes of the workshop are as

follows:

The private agencies engaged in water well drilling and well construction are not very

much familiar with the scientific approach in site selection, well design, construction

practices and spacing of tubewells as a result the tubewells constructed by such

agencies gets defunct due to

heavy drawdown, lesser well

efficiency in short span of time.

The panellist opined that there

is urgent need of capacity

building in this sector.

One of the latest development

in drilling technology is sonic

drilling which is basically a

sampling technique, however it

can be used effectively for

drilling and well construction in hard rock formation, small diameter wells and of

shallow depth in alluvial formation and also for construction of piezometers. Similarly,

the dual rotary rig is very useful for drilling in boundary formation and other

problematic areas where simultaneous casing is required.

Oil rig manufacturer and related service provider made good presentation on recent

technological development in manufacturing and drilling practices in oil industry,

however showed no commitment in transfer of technology for water well drilling.

During interaction with service providers, one of the service providers raised that many

of the bidders can’t participate in the recent tender floated by CGWB being not eligible

as per terms and condition on financial capabilities in tender document. Chairman

CGWB apprised that the financial capabilities in any tender are based upon the

estimated cost of work; the size of tenders will increase further as CGWB has to

complete the task of data generation in time bound manner. Therefore, different

service providers can participate forming consortium in tenders.

The response of some of the potential Indian service providers interested in

collaborations with internationally reputed firms of Australia etc to enhance their

capabilities are encouraging.

The capacity of various service providers in Indian drilling industry in terms of

availability of machinery, equipments and technical competence of manpower is limited

as compared to volume and nature of work envisaged through outsourcing under

NAQUIM. CGWB may go for global tendering for identifying and selecting

agency/agencies capable to undertake envisaged work through outsourcing. Panel

opined that the technical competence of agency undertaking the work shall also be

analysed and if required training shall be imparted by CGWB.

The research and innovation being done on water well drilling techniques shall be

documented and made available to different users. CGWB may form Centre of

Excellence and Research for technological development in water well drilling.

The Rig manufacturers shall come up with latest technological development for efficient

operations and handling of problems encountered during drilling. The agencies

developing the new technologies shall give hands on training to CGWB staff for effective

use of the technology.

The response of oil well Rig manufacturers/ drillers was not found encouraging in

respect of taking up similar works for water well drilling in such a large scale as

envisaged under NAQUIM.

The latest technological development in drilling industry of India is not at par with the

advances in other countries. CGWB officers should be sent for training/exposure to

other countries for gaining state of the art technology which will be very much useful

NAQUIM project.

The function ended with vote of thanks.

Annexure-I

SONIC DRILLING

BHEL

CAIRN

KLR