ADNOC Drilling annual profit rises 6% to $604 million as revenues jump

ADNOC Drilling announced on Friday a 6 percent jump in its net profits for 2021 to US $604 million, along with an 8 percent rise in annual revenue growth fuelled by an increase in onshore segment activities.

The company’s revenue for the 12-month period increased 8.2 percent to $2.27 billion compared to the same period last year, ADNOC Drilling said in a statement, as it continues to support ADNOC Group’s programme to significantly grow production capacity.

The company’s oilfield services segment (OFS) also significantly grew its revenue and EBITDA year-on-year, it said. Revenue growth was strongest in the OFS, helping to offset weaker fourth quarter revenues in drilling segments. As a result, overall fourth quarter revenues were essentially flat compared to the same period last year.

Financial performance was lower as a result of nonrecurring drilling revenues booked in the prior comparative year, the company said. Full year EBITDA stood at $1.047 billion, with a healthy margin of 46.1 percent, as ADNOC Drilling made excellent progress on delivering further cost efficiencies.

“ADNOC Drilling’s first full year results as a listed company are an important milestone in the company’s journey since its record-breaking IPO on ADX,” Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, and Chairman of ADNOC Drilling, said in a statement.

“The strong full year results and successful strategic execution are testament to the vital role that the company is playing in enabling significant production capacity growth for ADNOC as well as the UAE’s objective to achieve gas self-sufficiency,” he added.

The company recommended a final dividend of $325 million for the second half of 2021, bringing the total dividend for the financial year to $685 million. “We are also able to reconfirm our guidance objective of 5 percent annual growth in dividend per share from 2022-2026,” Dr Al Jaber said.

In the offshore segment, revenue for the full year stood at $596 million, broadly flat compared to the corresponding period the previous year at $597 million. Fourth quarter revenue was $146 million, down 5 percent with the corresponding quarter the previous year. The company attributed this in part to the retirement of three rigs and to delays in the replacement of rented rigs with owned rigs.