We do not drill, and that is the product.
A method review from a firm that wants the drilling contract is a sales document. This page sets out exactly what we do and do not have a financial interest in, so you can judge our advice accordingly.
What we do not do
- We do not own or lease drilling rigs, and we do not hold a trenchless construction crew.
- We do not bid, subcontract or self-perform any part of the work we advise on.
- We do not take a fee, commission, rebate or referral payment from any contractor, rental house, tooling supplier or fluids vendor. Not on any project, in any amount.
- We do not take a share of the construction value, and our fee does not move with the outcome of the advice.
- We do not price our advice as a percentage of the construction value, because that pays us to let the number go up.
Conflicts, and how you will hear about them
A blanket claim of independence is worth very little on its own. What is worth something is a written commitment about what happens when a conflict does arise — because in a market this small, sooner or later one will. Ours:
Before we see anything
Every enquiry is run against the parties and the project before we take confidential material. If there is an issue you hear it that day, not after you have briefed us.
In writing, before the letter
If we hold any interest — ownership, financial, or a current engagement — touching a party to your project, you get it in writing before the engagement letter is signed, in enough detail to judge it. Not in a footnote, and not afterwards.
From the decision
Where a disclosed interest touches a tenderer, we do not score, rank or recommend between bidders on that project. We hand that scope to another consultant and stay on the engineering.
Under review
Any contractor we are asked to inspect is held to precisely the standard we would hold any other. We have stopped pulls before and we will stop yours.
When it cannot be managed
Some conflicts cannot be cured by disclosure. When that is the case we say no to the engagement rather than manage our way around it.
Ask us directly
If you want to know whether we hold any interest in a named party before you call, ask. We will answer the question straight.
What you get instead
The thing an independent trenchless engineer can say that a bidding contractor cannot is no. No, that profile will not hold in that till. No, that pull force exceeds what the pipe will take. No, that fluid programme belongs to a different formation. No, this crossing should be moved rather than engineered around. No, the rig you have been offered is a class too small and the last two hundred metres will be a problem.
Every one of those sentences costs a contractor money to say. We are structured so that they cost us nothing.
Professional liability insurance and the terms we contract on are set out under how we work.