EMERGING ISSUES OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN WATER WELL DRILLING ON

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 Km 2 mappable 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. 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 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

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 km 2 mappable area about 9 lakh km 2 area has been mapped and 14 lakh km 2 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.

SONIC DRILLING Annexure-I

BHEL

CAIRN

KLR