Drilling company buys three onshore rigs

The National Drilling Co (NDC) is buying three new advanced onshore drilling rigs for Dh334 million from Cooper Manufacturing Corp of the U.S., an official said.

Deliveries will be completed by mid-2002, taking the total number of onshore rigs to 16. NDC has 10 offshore rigs and four water-well units.

"The deal was finalised within the framework of the company's policy, aiming at modernising and updating its drilling fleet to meet the increasing demand in drilling activities in Abu Dhabi."

It has also leased two offshore rigs from Nobel International to keep up with demand from customers for its drilling services.

The one-year lease was signed in March. "This was concluded to fulfill the increasing demand of customers on the drilling services it offers them through the use of the most updated techniques and technologies," NDC said in a company newsletter.

The onshore rigs can withstand extreme weather conditions, and would be ideal in very difficult and critical geological areas where traditional rigs fail to perform perfectly as they require a stable base to carry out drilling operations.

Also, the new rigs have huge capacity to simultaneously operate in vertical and horizontal positions.