Two more offshore drillers have received a contract suspension for jackup rigs in Saudi Arabia. The latest ones are Borr Drilling and Arabian Drilling.
Borr Drilling said in an Oslo Bors filing that it received a notice of temporary suspension of operations for its Arabia I working in Saudi Arabia. The fleet status report states the jackup is contracted to the country’s oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco although it was not specifically stated in the filing.
The temporary suspension will be for a period of up to 12 months and is expected to begin in the second quarter. Borr stated that it would seek alternative engagement for the rig while on suspension.
The Arabia I has been on contract with Saudi Aramco since October 2022 and its contract was supposed to end in October 2025. The Saudi company also had an option to extend the deal.
Arabian Drilling was the first company to name the oil and gas firm outright and said that it was currently in discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding contract suspensions relating to three of its jackups.
Like with Borr, the suspensions are for a period of up to 12 months, but the impacted rigs and the timing of the suspensions are yet to be confirmed.
In the other two cases, the client was not named directly. Shelf Drilling said that it received a notice of suspension of operations from “a Middle Eastern customer” for four of its rigs. It also did not point to Saudi Aramco as the client, but that is their only Middle Eastern client with four or more Shelf jackups on hire.
Also, ADES stated that it mutually agreed with its “client in Saudi Arabia” to temporarily suspend operations on five of its 33 offshore jackups operating in the country for up to 12 months. Again, the client was not revealed but it is easy to know that it is indeed Saudi Aramco as all 33 jackups working in the country are contracted to it.
