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RIYADH: Arabian Drilling Co. is aiming to use the proceeds of its offering to finance its growth strategy in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, and diversifying income from support operations that serve drilling work, its CEO told Al-Arabiya. 

This comes as the Saudi oil and gas drilling contract announced its intention to list its ordinary shares on the Saudi main index in an initial public offering.

Ghassan Mirdad noted that the firm owns 45 drilling rigs in Saudi Arabia, in which seven are offshore and 38 are onshore.

The planned expansion in the Gulf counties is to happen in two ways, through entering into tenders, and acquisition of companies, depending on the available and optimum opportunities, he explained. 

He expected Arabian Drilling’s listing and start of trading in the Saudi stock market to be during the first week of November, adding that the subscription of individuals will start on Oct. 18, 2022. 

Arabian Drilling said it will sell existing shares representing 19.98 percent of its post-listing share capital, and issue new shares representing 10.11 percent of its share capital, according to a bourse filing. 

The upcoming book building event is going to take place from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, 2022.

The final offering price of the offering will be determined after the book building process is complete.

The sale of shares through the secondary offering will be on a pro-rata basis according to the percentage of the shareholders in the Arab Drilling Co., namely TAQA and Schlumberger.

Mirdad added that TAQA’s stake in Arabian Drilling is 51 percent, while Schlumberger holds a 49 percent stake, noting that the shares of the two companies will decrease equally after the offering.

Pointing to the signing and rental of contracts with Aramco and Schlumberger, the executive said that  50 percent of the firm’s contracts are in favor of Aramco.

He said the remaining contracts are distributed to Schlumberger, and the operations of Al-Khafji Joint Project on the borders of Kuwait, in addition to contracts with Baker Hughes.

Founded in 1964, Arabian Drilling Co. is a limited liability company co-owned by Industrialization and Energy Services Co. and Schlumberger who own 51 percent and 49 percent respectively.