Drilling Tenders and Contracts

A drilling tender covers borehole and water-well drilling on public sector sites, drilling for water supply, irrigation or groundwater abstraction, or drilling carried out to support ground investigation ahead of construction. Buyers let it as a standalone contract or as part of a wider project.

Stotles brings together drilling tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Borehole drilling is often let as a package inside ground investigation frameworks run by highway authorities and councils.

Water abstraction from a new borehole usually needs a licence from the Environment Agency or the equivalent regulator, and drilling brings duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar projects at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Drilling is let as a standalone specialist works contract, or as a sub-contract package within a wider ground investigation, construction or grounds maintenance project. Some buyers appoint drilling specialists through an approved framework rather than tendering each job separately.

Universities, water companies and local councils commission borehole and water-well drilling for irrigation, water supply and groundwater abstraction projects. Estate and grounds teams also let this work directly to specialist drilling contractors.

Read ground source heat feasibility studies, irrigation and water supply plans, ground investigation programmes and capital schemes, which show drilling work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Drilling notices carry 45262220 (Water-well drilling) and 71351500 (Ground investigation services).