ADES Buys 11 Drilling Rigs from Weatherford

Weatherford International plc has completed the sale of its Saudi Arabia Drilling operations the company announced Monday.

Weatherford has sold its Precision Drilling Services Saudi Arabia (PDSSA) land drilling operations to ADES International Holding Ltd. (ADES) for $92.5 million. The sale includes 11 drilling rigs, 923 employees and associated customer contracts.

This is the second in a series of four closings announced earlier this year.

In July 2018, a subsidiary of Weatherford signed definitive agreements with ADES for sale of the company’s land drilling rig operations in Algeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well as two idle land rigs in Iraq for $287.5 million.     

The overall transaction includes 31 land drilling rigs and related drilling contracts, as well as 2,300 employees and contract personnel.

Today’s announcement follows Weatherford’s November closing of the Kuwait land drilling rigs sale for $123 million plus an additional $12 million in cash once the two idle rigs from Iraq are delivered.

Weatherford plans to use proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt. 

“We have now completed the majority of the Weatherford acquisition, which is transformational for the group, significantly increasing our size, visibility and exposure in the onshore market,” Dr. Mohamed Farouk, ADES CEO said in a company statement.

He added that ADES looks forward to finalizing the Algerian tranche of the Weatherford acquisition before the end of 2018.