Oil driller Ades lands contracts in Indonesia, Algeria: Fresh off its hot IPO, Tadawul-listed oil and gas drilling company Ades Holding has inked three contracts worth combined SAR 1 bn (USD 293 mn) in Indonesia and Algeria, it said in a regulatory filing (pdf) yesterday.

Southeast Asia is new for the Egypt-born company: State-owned Pertamina DrillingServices Indonesia (PDSI) awarded Ades a three-year contract that could potentially be extended to five years to operate Ades’ existing jack-up drilling rig Emerald Driller in the Java Sea. Ades drew a line under the contract’s favorable pricing, which it says is at a day rate higher than the going average with a “high double-digit increase.” Operations are set to start in 2H 2024. Indonesia becomes Ades’ eighth country; the Emerald Driller is currently stationed in Qatar.

Not a first in Algeria: State-owned oil company Sonatrach has awarded Ades two five-year contracts worth a combined SAR 296 mn to operate two of Ades’ existing onshore rigs dubbed (ADES 810 and ADES 815), which are currently in Egypt. The company expects to start operations in 2H 2024.

“Revenue replenishment” is the name of the game for a driller such as Ades, which needs to book business ahead of existing contracts ending when fields peter out. An emphasis on long-term contracts “offers robust cashflow visibility,” said Ades CEO Mohamed Farouk.

Ades does a mix of onshore and offshore work across MENA and in India. It went public this fall in a high-profile IPO on the Tadawul orchestrated by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF bought London-listed driller and took it private ahead of the transaction. The USD 1.2 bn IPO was priced at the top of the range after heavy interest from both institutional and individual buyers, making it the Kingdom’s biggest IPO this year.

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