Guarantee on drilling projects

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• Borehole Drilling
• Legal Policy Frameworks
• Legal Organizations
• Legal Services
• Bore Well Recharge
• Legal Consulting & Services
• Bore Hole Camera

2 Answers

1. Hi, Charlie,
   here attached you can find quite recent literature about the "Product Liability Law" in Nigeria.
   The judicial system is pretty different from western countries in that the judge in charge decides practically on his own based on the evidence and information presented to him.
   Based on your description of the facts, I am personally of the opinion that the company that carried out the work must take full responsibility and bear all the costs of the new drilling or this company can blame the local community water manager for the collapse.
   Good luck with your project!

   Best regards

   Duilio

2. Hi - Its a difficult one this and there are many questions that need to be answered before a conclusion towards blame can be drawn. It sounds to me as though the contractor has been engaged on a design & build basis so as an expert in his field, he is deemed to have the necessary skill and experience to design the borehole and execute the works properly. Did he produce a technical specification detailing the design works ? ie depth, diameter, casing specifications etc ? or did he just show up and get on with the works without any sort of prescriptive technical spec put forward ? Who has alleged that the casing is too weak ? Is it a consultant ? I could go on asking questions for a long time but the best hope you have is that if a well prepared technical specification was produced by someone who knows what they are doing specified a correct casing type and the driller didnt do as the spec said then you may have a case. If there is no spec then you will have a much harder time trying to prove liability. This is why it can be important to have a skilled consultant involved who can design the borehole properly and the spec is used to engage the contractor. Without one, its difficult to see a satisfactory outcome I'm afraid...Good luck anyway ! 

   2 Comments

   1. Agree with this sentiment, often I witness abstraction from boreholes exceeding the actual yield capacity that ultimately can lead to the collapse of the borehole. Conditions change during dry seasons and should be considered in protecting the performance of and the yield from the borehole

   2. I agree with Iain. Without having your own expert on site to verify the materials and work, it will be the driller's word and opinion (who can easily claim to be an expert) vs yours. This is unfortunately not a rare occurrence, as many wells in Africa become inoperable after only a year or so. Many contractors are not as invested in the success of the community as the sponsoring organization. Unless you can prove without a doubt the collapse was due to the contractor's negligence, he will not be at fault. He could easily blame unforeseen geologic conditions or a defect in the material caused by manufacturing that was unable to be discerned by his inspection. Having the same contractor drill another well without oversight will likely have a similar result.

      1 Comment reply

      1. Hi Mary. Yes agreed. I think the trick for these guys going forward is for either a consultant or the driller to provide a tech sub to the client team to fully detail the approach strategy for the drilling of the well including the materials ( casings / screens etc ) to be used. Then a consultant / experienced person on the client team can interrogate the tech sub and validate ( or not as the case may be ) before work commences. It is likely that the screens / casings  ( presumably PVC ) will need to have sufficient wall thickness, and therefore collapse resistance to withstand the well characteristics at this particular site. It shouldn't be difficult to get this right so long as the right people are involved. Without this approach, the driller is free to do what he wants with whatever materials he wants to use up that might not be suitable for the job !