Baker Hughes, Aramco to expand integrated coiled tubing drilling operations

Aramco tapped Baker Hughes to expand its integrated underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) operations across Saudi Arabia’s natural gas fields. The order was booked in Q3 2025 and work is scheduled to commence in 2026.

Under the multi-year agreement, Baker Hughes will expand its current UBCTD fleet from four to 10 units for re-entry and greenfield drilling projects across fields in the Kingdom. The company will provide integrated solutions to manage all aspects of the UBCTD operations, including coiled tubing drilling units, underbalanced drilling services, operational management, well construction and geosciences to scale and accelerate their access to gas from new and established fields.

Baker Hughes’ integrated approach to UBCTD includes the industry-leading CoilTrak bottomhole assembly (BHA) system and enhanced reservoir analysis driven by GaffneyCline energy advisory. This allows operators to more effectively navigate the subsurface environment during horizontal drilling and re-entry operations.