ADNOC Drilling has secured a contract from ADNOC Offshore, valued $733 million, to build three island drilling rigs in support of the growing operations at the offshore Zakum field.
The rigs will be designed and built as part of a partnership between ADNOC Drilling and Honghua Group (HH).
Delivery of the rigs and start of operations is expected during 2026.
The partnership has been specifically formed to harness the transformative nature of AI, digitization, and advanced technology in the design and operation of these next generation drilling rigs.
The three new island rigs will operate on existing and newly constructed innovative artificial islands at the offshore Zakum field for drilling and completion of wells.
ADNOC Drilling and HH will look to also collaborate with AIQ, an Abu Dhabi based artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer contributing to the energy sector globally.
The design of the rig operating systems will look to utilize real-time condition, performance and utilization data to create actionable insights, enhancing rig performance and increasing efficiency, leading to improvements in safety and well delivery times.
Additionally, drilling operations on ADNOC’s innovative artificial islands create the ideal conditions for extended reach drilling (ERD) with the top five longest wells in the world being delivered from these islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the most recently delivered being over 52,000 feet.
The rigs will be built to deliver ERD as well as having the state-of-the-art capability of walking between wells eliminating the need for the rigs to be dismantled to be moved.
The ADNOC Drilling fleet is now expected to total at least 148 by 2026 including these three new rigs as well as the previously announced three land rigs for the initial phase of the unconventional development.
“ADNOC Drilling is honored to receive this substantial award, which marks a significant milestone in our company’s accelerated growth journey. These new island rigs will be the most advanced in the world, embracing artificial intelligence, the most transformative technology of our generation.
“Our partnership with HH will amplify the creativity and ingenuity of our industry as we design and build these rigs of the future that drive efficiency and safety and deliver exceptional value for our customer ADNOC Offshore,” said Abdulrahman Abdulla Al Seiari, Chief Executive Officer of ADNOC Drilling.