Atlas Copco S Geobor coring equipment was selected by drilling contractor Drilcorp on a prestigious contract for the British Geological Survey (BGS) earlier this year.

The contract comprised of efficient core drilling to a depth of more than 500m near the England-Scotland Borders town of Berwick-on-Tweed.

The drilling was aimed at investigating the period when the first fauna, known as 'tetrapods' (meaning four feet), are believed to have left the evaporating sea to survive on land using lung breathing rather than gills as used under water, and the remote borehole location was chosen on the basis of previous evidence of regional geological structures, in the Berwick area of 350 million years ago.

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The core drilling helps fill in information gaps and these rocks are the main target of core drilling at Norham West Mains Farm, Berwick upon Tweed.

Drilcorp, based in Seaham, Co Durham, were awarded the contract on the basis of their expertise in exploratory, geotechnical and deep hole drilling and the firm had to achieve 100% recovery of large (102mm-diameter) cores.

They chose the Atlas Copco S Geobor system because of its versatility and proven quality.

Drilcorp Chief Executive David Gowans, said: "This was a deep borehole for a single string of S Geobor and we were not sure whether this had been achieved previously anywhere in the world. We chose Atlas Copco coring equipment as it has an excellent reputation, guaranteed quality and traceability.

"We could not afford problems on this job but if we did have, we needed to be able to prove that we had used the best equipment available on the market. BGS specified 100-per-cent intact cores in optimum condition so we could not afford any drilling-induced damage."

(JP/CD)