Azernews.Az

DOHA – Gulf International Services QSC, a Qatari oil and gas services company, seeks to set up ventures with other companies to drill outside the emirate as it faces lower rates for its rigs, the company's chief coordinator said.

"We are under negotiations with other partners outside Qatar to start some new joint ventures to do some drilling outside Qatar," Ebrahim Al Mannai said yesterday at a press conference in Doha, the emirate's capital.

About 25 per cent of drilling rigs in the Middle East are idle at the moment, Gulf International said in an e-mailed press release. Contracts for the nine rigs belonging to the company's drilling unit will be renewed at lower rates as they expire, Al Mannai said. "This is a fact of the market," he said.

Operations
Gulf International's Al-Rayyan is under maintenance until the end of summer and isn't currently contracted for drilling, Al Mannai said. Two other rigs, Al Zubarah and Al Khor, are operating at reduced rates, he said. Al Doha will undergo three months of repair next year and Al Wajbah will have three months work in 2012, the company said in the release.

Gulf International, which also owns a helicopter operator and an insurance and reinsurance company, last month reported a 12 per cent drop in first-half net income to 250 million riyals (Dh252 million). It aims to raise revenue by 61 per cent and profit by 17 per cent by 2014, according to a presentation on its website.

"There is a big potential of growth," Al Mannai said. "There is a huge potential for other services that need to be provided by local companies in Qatar. Currently, I cannot announce anything about any acquisition but once the right time comes, we will announce it."

Gulf International's share price rose 0.4 per cent to 27.6 riyals on the Qatar Exchange. Shares have dropped 11 per cent this year compared with a 1 per cent gain for the QE Index of leading Qatari companies.