Rig’s 365-day Nigerian offshore drilling gig enables ADES’ first foray into West Africa

ADES Holding Company, part of Saudi Arabia-headquartered ADES Group, has expanded its global presence by spreading its wings to the eleventh country on its worksheet, thanks to an offshore drilling assignment one of its jack-up rigs will undertake off the coast of Nigeria. This drilling job marks the company’s first entry into West Africa, enabling it to tap into the region’s dynamic oil and gas sector.

ADES’ Admarine 504 jack-up rig will go to Nigeria for its next drilling contract to work with Brittania-U, an indigenous integrated energy company that operates across Nigeria’s oil and gas value chain. The Saudi firm sees this award as a new milestone in its diversification strategy, paving the way for further growth alongside its robust presence in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Commenting on the award, Dr. Mohamed Farouk, CEO of ADES Holding, remarked: “Following our successful expansion over the past couple of years into India and Southeast Asia, we are now making our first foray into West Africa with this new award in Nigeria, a country with high oil and gas potential and strong demand for drilling rigs in the coming years, particularly in the offshore jack-up segment.

“This award is an important milestone in our global expansion journey, with West Africa and Southeast Asia together representing key growth geographies for ADES as we diversify our geographical footprint and capitalize on emerging opportunities in these undersupplied markets.”

Given its geographic diversification and expansion strategy, ADES and Admarine 504’s current client in Saudi Arabia have mutually agreed to suspend the rig’s operation in the country while retaining the remaining backlog value with the firm’s client, extending the original term of the temporarily suspended contract.

Therefore, the Admarine 504 rig is scheduled to be mobilized from the Middle East to West Africa in the first quarter of 2025, as the agreed suspension mechanism offers enough flexibility for the suspended rig to complete new deployments before resuming work in Saudi Arabia post-suspension.

The new assignment in Nigeria will see the rig contract drill and complete six wells within 365 days, once operations start, which is expected in the second quarter of 2025. The rig’s operations will be jointly handled by ADES and Valiant Offshore Contractors under a charter structure, where the former will provide the rig along with its senior crew and relevant management systems to the latter against a charter fee.

In return, Valiant will fulfill its drilling obligations under its contract with Brittania-U. Moreover, the value of the charter contract is estimated at SAR 81.8 million (about $21.8 million), representing a percentage of the drilling contract between Brittania-U and Valiant.

Farouk added: “Meanwhile in our home market of Saudi Arabia, we continue to demonstrate agility with a client-centric approach – aligning with our client’s strategic needs and objectives – while leveraging newly afforded capacities to pursue attractive opportunities in existing and new markets.

“In that regard, the Group has successfully secured new awards for four of the five previously suspended rigs in record time, and we are confident in the Group’s ability to redeploy the remaining rig during the year.”

Following a spike in its total redeployment level of the recently suspended rigs in Saudi Arabia to three out of five jack-ups, thanks to drilling campaigns in Qatar, Thailand, and Egypt, ADES confirmed its fourth redeployment, which was secured via a letter of award (LOA) in Thailand.

The company has also boosted its rig fleet with two rigs from Vantage Drilling, which recently moved to the firm’s fleet.