CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
Old views of drilling, contracting
must be shed so industry can
drive meaningful improvements
By adopting new contracting strategies, as well
as automation and AI, ARO Drilling seeks to push
for true step changes in rig performance
Mohamed Hegazi, CEO, ARO Drilling
BY LINDA HSIEH, EDITOR & PUBLISHER
From your perspective as CEO of ARO
Drilling, what do you see as the big-
gest near-term challenges for the
drilling industry, both for your com-
pany specifically and for the global
drilling industry?
I think the challenge is twofold. The
first is around how the public perception
of our industry is changing as people are
increasingly exposed to social media and
messaging from different bodies, whether
government or non-government, on cli-
mate change and sustainability. That will
have an impact on our industry.
Second is attracting and retaining tal-
ent. We need to make sure that people
understand that this industry has both
longevity and stability, because hydrocar-
bons will be a part of the world’s energy
mix for many years to come. The energy
transition is not an on/off switch ; it will
be gradual .
I think that operators and even compa-
nies like ARO Drilling have to start reach-
ing out to the general public, like regular
commercial brands. Instead of thinking
about being B2B (business to business)
or B2C (business to consumers), we have
to think in terms of B2H – business to
humans . We have to try and make sure
people understand how our industry con-
tributes to the world and how we’re taking
steps to help with the transition .
Is workforce attraction and retention
as difficult a challenge in the Middle
East as it is in other parts of the world?
28 It is definitely becoming increasingly
more difficult to attract top talent . Here in
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example,
there is an ongoing transformation, and
many new sectors are being built up, such
as financial services, media and tourism.
That’s putting a lot of pressure on the
labor market, even though those sectors
aren’t necessarily recruiting people with
the same technical expertise as we are. But
our industry needs more than just engi-
neers – we also need people in support
functions throughout the supply chain .
For ARO Drilling, we have committed to
building 20 new jackups in the Kingdom
with our partner, International Maritime
Industries (IMI) in Ras al Khair . This is a
multibillion-dollar project, and it’s almost
like building a new city. You need to create
a whole new supply chain ecosystem that
encompasses logistics, medical services,
food & catering, training – everything you
can think of. This is creating tremendous
job opportunities.
As you mentioned, ARO Drilling is in the
early stages of a significant newbuild
program, which is rare in the industry
today. Since you have that opportu-
nity to build new jackups, can you talk
about how ARO intends to evolve rig
design and/or technologies to create
“rigs of the future”?
Because the IMI yard i s a brand-new
shipyard, it’s going to have a learning
curve. For our first two rigs – the Kingdom
1, delivered in November, and Kingdom 2,
scheduled for delivery in March – we’ve
opted for designs that are modern, yet have
high compatibility with existing rigs .
As we kick off Kingdom 3 and Kingdom
4, we’ll be looking at different designs to
make the rigs even more mobile and more
environmentally friendly . We’ll be work-
ing to adopt a lot more emerging and new
technologies around automation, the inte-
gration of data and artificial intelligence.
B y the time we reach midway through this
project, we want to be building rigs that are
not only fit for Saudi Aramco’s operations
but that also embody all the newest tech-
nology advances available on the market.
As you mentioned, this is really the
only major offshore newbuild project hap-
pening in the world today. I think we’ll
definitely attract a lot of the innovators to
contribute to it.
I would imagine you’re already seeing
a lot of companies wanting to enter
this market.
Yes, we have met with a lot of com-
panies that want to be a part of this big
ecosystem being built up in the Kingdom.
However, I see that a lot of them have not
taken the decision to set up their business
here in Saudi Arabia.
I think that, if you believe in this mar-
ket , you need to be here physically. This
kind of business cannot be done remotely.
There’s a very high level of involvement
required, from engineering to planning to
having a very detailed supply chain loop .
For companies that want to be involved,
they need to come and physically be here
in Saudi Arabia.
JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2024 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R