Shiv Ganga dismisses doubts about Koyna well
Indore-based drilling newcomer Shiv Ganga has dismissed claims it cannot fulfil a contract to drill a 3000-metre ‘scientific research’ borehole in Maharashtra’s Koyna region.
“We‘re definitely going ahead with drilling the well,” says a senior company source. “We’ve begun work on the ground.
" Shiv Ganga is levelling the ground and preparing an approach road to the well site, about 45-km from Karad city in the hilly Koyna region, around 170-km from Pune and the site of one of Maharashtra’s largest dams. Shiv Ganga won the Rs43.8cr ($6.47m) single well drilling contract from the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research on behalf of the Borehole Geophysics Research Laboratory around late August last year (2015), beating Delhi-based Quippo and Nagpur-based Kartikay Exploration and Mining services.
"The purpose of the well is to assist scientific studies on reservoir-triggered earthquakes in the region," we hear. Shiv Ganga is awaiting environment ministry and local pollution control board clearances, expected to take three months to come in, before mobilising a 950-hp truck-mounted ‘Predator’ model rig.
A leading Ahmedabad-based driller doubts inexperienced Shiv Ganga's capacity to drill and complete the well. "Initially they can begin operations," says our industry source.
"But as they go deeper they will encounter problems because of the basalt and granite hard rock and it will be difficult."