Arabian Drilling signs five-year deal for 8 land rigs with SLB

Arabian Drilling signed a five-year contract with SLB Middle East for eight additional land rigs supporting gas lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) operations in Saudi Arabia. The rigs will be redeployed from Arabian Drilling’s existing available land rig fleet.

The contract is expected to begin contributing to the company’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2026 and will add approximately SAR 2 billion ($533 million) to Arabian Drilling’s backlog. It follows an earlier five-year, 11-rig gas LSTK contract with SLB signed in August 2026, worth about SAR 3 billion ($800 million).

Combined, the two contracts add approximately SAR 5 billion ($1.33 billion) to Arabian Drilling’s backlog, bringing its total backlog to around SAR 16 billion ($4.27 billion). SLB is a major shareholder in Arabian Drilling alongside Saudi Arabia’s Industrialization & Energy Services Company (TAQA); the end client and gas fields for the new rigs were not disclosed.