The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and its subsidiary ADNOC Drilling Company (ADNOC Drilling) along with Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (H&P) have announced formation of strategic alliance, a press release issued by ADNOC reported.

According to the transaction, ADNOC will acquire eight FlexRig® land rigs from H&P worth $86.5 million and H&P will make a $100 million cornerstone investment into ADNOC Drilling’s recently announced Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The statement elaborated that this alliance will support ADNOC’s target of reaching 5 million barrels per day (mmbbl/d) production capacity and gas self-sufficiency for the UAE by 2030, along with its plans to unlock its unconventional oil and gas resources.

It also will empower the company in driving operational excellence through maintenance efficiencies, supplementing supply-chain capabilities, and adding engineering and rig design competencies

Per H&P, the agreement will help the company to accelerate its access into the attractive and fast-growing Abu Dhabi market as a key platform for further regional expansion.

In this regard, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, expressed his pleasure for this transaction saying “H&P’s cornerstone investment in our planned ADNOC Drilling IPO further reinforces ADNOC’s continued success as a primary catalyst in attracting leading global investors and industry partners into Abu Dhabi and the UAE.”

For his part, John Lindsay, H&P’s President and CEO commented “Our investment in ADNOC Drilling is an additional step in the execution of our international growth strategy to allocate additional capital outside the U.S. and serves as a testament of our belief in what ADNOC Drilling and H&P can achieve together. We look forward to partnering with ADNOC and ADNOC Drilling to help create a similar value proposition that we have for customers in the U.S. and other international locations.”