Baker Hughes has secured a contract from Aramco to enhance its integrated underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) operations in Saudi Arabia.

Booked in the third quarter of 2025, the expansion will see the company's UBCTD fleet grow from four to ten units, catering to re-entry and greenfield drilling projects across the region's natural gas fields.

Under the multi-year agreement, Baker Hughes will provide solutions for the management of UBCTD operations, aimed to scale and accelerate gas extraction from both new and established fields.

This includes the supply of coiled tubing drilling units, underbalanced drilling services, operational management, well construction, and geosciences.

According to Baker Hughes, the combination of its CoilTrak bottomhole assembly (BHA) system, enhanced reservoir analysis from GaffneyCline energy advisory, and expert insight will help improve the navigation of subsurface environments during horizontal drilling and re-entry operations.

The company's solutions are expected to improve production efficiency, speed and safety while reducing reservoir damage compared to conventional methods.

The operations are set to begin next year, further strengthening Baker Hughes' presence in the region.

Baker Hughes Oilfield Services and Equipment executive vice-president Amerino Gatti said: "This project is the result of nearly two decades of successful collaboration between Baker Hughes and Aramco, which have set the standard for UBCTD.

"This expansion sets the stage for further innovation in UBCTD, which has the potential to shape how oil and gas are produced around the world."

In April, Aramco awarded a key equipment supply contract to Baker Hughes for the third phase of MGS project in Saudi Arabia. 

The contractual scope included supply of 17 pipeline centrifugal compressors powered by aeroderivative gas turbines.