By: OrePulse

An unnamed international oil company has exercised its option to extend the contract for the jack-up rig Shelf Drilling Tenacious by one year, which operates offshore Angola, Saudi drilling contractor Ades Saudi said in a disclosure filed with the Saudi Exchange on October 28.

The rig is owned by offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling and operated under contract by Ades Saudi, a subsidiary of Ades Holding. The one-year extension will take effect once the rig's current firm contract term concludes in the first quarter of 2027. Ades Saudi put the value of the additional period at approximately $52 million, equivalent to about 195 million Saudi riyals.

The Angola extension was the second contract disclosure Ades Saudi made within 24 hours. A day earlier, the company announced a separate agreement with Indonesia's Pertamina Hulu Mahakam covering the jack-up rig Shelf Drilling Perseverance. That contract runs for a firm term of 406 days with an additional 30-day option, and its total value, including mobilization and start-up fees, was put at about $46.17 million, or roughly 173.14 million riyals. Work under the Indonesian contract is expected to start at the end of December 2026.

The two disclosures follow Ades Saudi's acquisition earlier in 2026 of Saipem's Saudi Arabian jack-up rig business, a transaction valued at about $285 million that added five jack-up rigs, named Perro Negro 7, 8, 10, 11 and 13, to the company's fleet.

Ades Holding has described its overall fleet as comprising 86 jack-up rigs, including 46 classified as premium units, along with one barge rig, one mobile offshore production unit and 40 land rigs, operating across 21 countries. Rigs associated with the company's contracts also work in other locations, including Nigeria, Thailand and the North Sea.