Simple Guides in Selecting a Competent Firm for your Drilling Project

Hello, are you planning for a drilling project any soon? Here are few guides to help you in selecting a good competent firm for your project.

1) Experience: There is a saying that the best geologist is one who have seen most rocks. Geology/Drilling is more than having a Phd/Professor title. It is more of field exposures. Before selecting the firm for that project, try to make sure the qualification merge with the experience. Having a Phd with little/no field experience is useless here.

2) References/Track Record: Try to make enquiry. You can online about the company, check forums and try to see if there is any bad record somewhere. There is no way a good and competent firm will not have an online presence. With this you will be saving yourself from falling victim.

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Why Dry Holes, Bad Holes?

Have you ever been a victim of dry hole? Or are you planning to embark on a drilling project and you are having a mixed feeling😕 Most times the Client go to the extent of asking for an agreement which we drilling companies don't issue professionally.

Here are few examples of a Dry Hole or Bad Hole Scenario

• No Water. Here the hole couldn't supply water that could be sustainable through water management plan.
•  Bad Water. Here there is water but the water does not get to clean up after series of pumping even for years. 

Either of the two could be avoided. Though in drilling, there is always a risk factor which i give 2-10%. The chances of getting he best out of the hole is between 90-98% which is very excellent.

So what is the risk factor? I called it NATURE. This is most time unpreventable, unavoidable, unannounced, unpredictable, unseen, uncontrollable. This the risk factor that could affect any drilling. There is no technology in this world that can tell you the quantity or quality of water under the ground.

Can this be Prevented? YES.
You can save yourself from having a dry or bad hole by giving your project to a competent hand. Experience is very vital in the Drilling/Geo-science profession. Always endeavor to give your project to someone with a fantastic track record. Someone that understand the geology and the hydrology of the area your site is located.

When you get the hand on your project right, you already got yourself a 90% chance of having a great hole.  

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Which Source of Water is Better for Agricultural Purpose in Nigeria

Water, as simple as it is could ruin most people’s dream of making it big in Agriculture. Without talking much, I will highlight various sources of water you can depend on for your Agricultural business. Agriculture, I hope you know this doesn’t limit to crop farming, fishery, animal husbandry, poultry. The success of any one you are venturing into depends on your accessibility to potable water. This is where selection of land comes in. You can’t possibly want to venture into fishery and select a site around Ojodu, Arepo, Isheri north in Ogun state. Water from this areas, be it borehole or well are highly contaminated and you might have to budget some million naira for reverse osmosis. Without talking much, here are some possibly source of water you could rely on for your Agric business.

Rainfall– Depending on what you intend to do, this source could be readily available for you at no cost. The set back depending on this source is that your business will have to be seasonal and you might be limited in your operation and diversification.

Stream/River-This source too could be readily available to you at no extra cost depending on your farm location. But be ready to save some money for mud pump/surface pump. This source too could be seasonal thereby dictating your production. In this era of global warming, you should know its availability can’t be predictable.

Well– This source is very economical, it’s advisable in a plan where funding needs to be constraint. It is not easily affected by season depending on local settings though this is unpredictable in a situation where we have global warming. It is sometimes affected by the environment thereby making it easily contaminated. Serious water analysis needs to be done to ensure its ok for use.

Borehole– Though expensive, the benefits of having a borehole or more on your farm is immeasurable. You won’t have to worry about quality depending on area though. Your farm workers will have potable water available anytime, thereby aiding there output. Your operation will not have to depend on season. You definitely know the rest.

My advice for farmer is to always try to have at least a borehole on their farm. You can learn more about drilling a borehole Here Contact me for any question/advise you have on borehole drilling. 07013460941 Cheers

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Why it is very important to Check the Groundwater Potential before paying for that Farm Land

My simple advise to prospecting farmers is to always endeavor to check for the ground potential of the land you are planning to buy for your farming business.

You can imagine buying an acre of land at the rate between 200k -300k only getting to know later that drilling for a single borehole could cost you close to #2m. whereas in some areas, you can actually get your borehole drilled at around 150k, some 400k.

The variation is not predictable so try to do your underground work first on the ground water potential.

You can’t judge the groundwater potential by the availability of stream or top soil. A short way of knowing the potential is to ask for a well. You can measure the static water level of the well and from there induce how the potential of that area will be.

You can imagine a place where the water table is 40m in a well. digging a well up to this depth is going to churn lot of money talk less of drilling a borehole.

To be on a safer side, always engage the service of a geophysicist to conduct a geophysical investigation for you on the land. the investigation ranges from about 30k to 50k or more depending on location.

if you need more advise or consultation, you can call/whatsapp us on 07013460941.



Cheers

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How to Manage your Borehole

Managing of a borehole is very important to it's longevity. Your borehole specifications is very important to how you use the borehole. By specification, we mean the properties relating to their construction like Casing thickness, diameter, depth, yield etc.
There is need to understand how each of these are affected by the over usage of the borehole.
In a sedimentary terrain, you need to have an understanding that your casing will be interacting heavily with the earth/subsurface, hence the need for a very good casing with high tensile stress. Here are few points you can make use of to have long lasting borehole.

1) Control Pumping...Even if you have water flowing out of the borehole by itself, you should have a regular pumping pattern. It could be one hour everyday depending on your need.
Why control pumping pumping? It will let your pumping machine last longer, It will balance up any bottom hole pressure that might be mounting up against the borehole thereby reducing the possibility of having a collapse downhole.

2) Always Pump with the right voltage...In Nigeria, our electrical system is in the range of 220-240v. Try to avoid using anything lower or higher than this as this might cause your pumping machine to pack off. Also regulator/ stabilizers should never be use with this pumping machine.

3)Always switch off your pumping machine if you are going to sleep or going out.

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Practical Steps Involved in Drilling a Borehole

The world seems to be evolving fast. The use of hand dug wells seems to be going into extinction. From simple shopping complexes to shopping plazas, Private houses to Estates and even in Office setups, factories and even our farms, we can see the rapid ways by which boreholes are being springing up.

Base on this, it will be in our own personal interest to know about some things that are associated with borehole drilling since in one way or the other, we will definitely interact with it.

Firstly, let me take us back to some activities that take place before borehole is being drilled.i.e Prognosis to Borehole drilling.

This is prognosis is called Geophysical Investigation. Some people called it Geophysical survey. Over the years, I have received numerous number of calls asking about price for drilling a borehole and my response is always have you conducted a geophysical investigation on your site? Do you have the Geophysical report with you?
The Clients questions were like, whats do you mean by Geophysical Investigation? My neighbor already have a borehole drilled on his site and it cost #80,000, My neighbor's borehole depth is 50m, why will my own be different. From your past experience in that area, do you still need to conduct a geophysical investigation before drilling?

The short response to these is that...You need to know that the subsurface is not uniform. And changes deep down is not predictable. Hence your neighbor's borehole properties might be absolutely different from yours. And as you know, drilling its self is not always 100% successful. There is always a risk factor, so not conducting a geophysical investigation is just like increasing the drilling risk factor. Please note Geophysical investigation is always charged separately and you can consult an independent Geophysicist to carry it out for you.


After the Prognosis exercise/Geophysical Investigation now comes the drilling proper.

It is From the Investigation, you would have the idea of the drilling architecture and likewise the financial implications. The architecture will talk about the exact point to drill, the likely depth to drill and the formations/rocks to encounter with their various thicknesses. All these is what will determine the eventual financial implication for drilling the hole.
The drilling is most times charged per meter or as a lump sum depending on the technicality involved and the firm handling the project. The Drilling could be full casing or hanging depending on the nature of the subsurface. You should know that will also affect the cost.

After drilling, the hole should be properly flushed and decontaminated and also gravel packed(Grouting) and properly cased. This is called Borehole completion and expert experience is needed here as any loophole could destroy any good work that has been done so far.

Next is Pump Installation. The type of pump to use depends on the depth and yield of the borehole. The yield can be know from test pumping. Most times its assumed while drilling is on when compressor is being used.


After the pump has being installed, provision should be made for its security if the place is well open and not secured.

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