Arabian Drilling signed a five-year contract with SLB's Middle East business for eight additional land rigs, adding about SAR 2 billion ($533 million) to the company's backlog. The rigs will support gas lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) operations in Saudi Arabia, redeployed from Arabian Drilling's existing available land rig fleet rather than newly built units. The contract is expected to start contributing to the company's revenue in the fourth quarter of 2026.
What lump-sum turnkey means
In a lump-sum turnkey contract, the contractor is paid a fixed, pre-agreed price to deliver the finished drilling work, rather than being billed by the rig-day or by individual service.
A second gas contract with SLB
The agreement follows an earlier five-year, 11-rig gas LSTK contract that Arabian Drilling signed with SLB in August 2026, worth about SAR 3 billion ($800 million). Combined, the two contracts add roughly SAR 5 billion ($1.33 billion) to Arabian Drilling's backlog, bringing the total 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).
We previously reported that SLB launched two artificial lift technologies for US land wells.
