India’s Aban gets rid of another rig

India’s offshore drilling contractor Aban Offshore has sold one of its jack-up drilling rigs to UAE’s ADNOC Drilling.

In a stock exchange filing last Friday, Aban Offshore said it had sold its jack-up rig Deep Driller 8 for about $28 million. The transaction is expected to be completed at the end of July 2022.

The Deep Driller 8 is a jack-up capable of operating in water depths of up to 350 ft. The rig is of a KFELS SUPER B CLASS built in 2009 by Keppel FELS in Singapore.

A couple of months ago, Aban sold four of its jack-up drilling rigs to another UAE-based operator, ADES International. The total value of the deal was about $106 million.

On the other hand, the UAE-based ADNOC Drilling has been expanding its fleet and, in late May 2022, the company acquired two premium offshore jack-up rigs as part of its three-year guidance on capital expenditure. These two rigs, of a Gusto MSC design, will join the company’s fleet in the third quarter of 2022.

From its listing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in October 2021 to 31 March 2022 ADNOC Drilling expanded its fleet from 96 to 104 owned rigs.