Arabian Drilling Company has signed a five-year contract with SLB Schlumberger Middle East S.A. to provide 11 land rigs for gas lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) operations inside Saudi Arabia. The agreement, signed on 30 August 2026, carries a value of approximately SAR 3 billion (about USD 800 million).
The 11 rigs covered by the deal are existing incumbent units that were already operating under a previous gas LSTK project with SLB, which had been extended before this new award. The contract follows an earlier three-month extension in 2026 for the same 11 gas LSTK rigs, after which the longer-term agreement was granted.
Under the lump-sum turnkey structure, Arabian Drilling acts as the single contractor responsible for project stages for a fixed overall price, rather than billing on a day-rate, time-and-materials basis. The company is expected to begin recognizing revenue from the contract in the third quarter of 2026, with the deal supporting full utilization of its land rig fleet across the five-year term.
Why it matters
The roughly SAR 3 billion value is treated as part of Arabian Drilling's backlog, improving its future contracted revenue visibility over the period. The award anchors a significant portion of the company's onshore fleet in long-term work and forms part of the broader Saudi gas drilling and unconventional gas development program, further strengthening domestic oilfield services activity.
This is a commercial agreement between Arabian Drilling and SLB, disclosed through the Saudi Exchange issuer-announcement system. It involves no public fees, individual application steps, or citizen e-services. As of 1 September 2026, the SAR 3 billion value and five-year term are the latest disclosed core commercial terms, with no notice of any subsequent amendment.
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