We announced during the course of the quarter and intend to cooperate on the development of the direct air capture. And if you look at Mosaic, it’s a company that has specialized in metal organic frameworks [indiscernible], which have the potential to capture low concentration CO2.So what we’re going to be doing is demonstrating that with a prototype with HIF in 2024 and again, enabling them to start to deploy their e-fuel projects. So feel good about the partnership here and also the opportunity going forward. It’s a game changer. Again, if you look at e-fuels because they utilize the same infrastructure that’s existing today. And so from an investment level, it can be a nice substitution with a lower carbon footprint.Luke Lemoine All right.
Great. Thanks, Lorenzo.Operator Thank you. One moment for next question. And our next question coming from the line of Marc Bianchi with Cowen. Your line is open.Marc Bianchi Hey. Thank you. First question relates to Gas Tech Services. Revenue grew year-over-year here in first quarter, which I think is pretty impressive considering the comparison includes benefit from Russia last year. Maybe you could talk to the year-over-year outlook as we progress through the year? I guess you still have a difficult comparison with Russia in the second quarter, but then that goes away as we get into the back half. Just talk about what we should expect there if you could?Nancy Buese Yeah. We’re seeing really good growth in the services side of the business, and we do anticipate solid recovery.
I would say, we’re cautiously optimistic. One of the limiters still is the supply chain recovery, especially on the aviation side. So as we think about the inputs for services, that’s still in its recovery phase. But yeah, we’re very supportive of where services is going and we anticipate it continuing to move up over the year.Marc Bianchi Okay. And presumably, we should see that year-over-year growth rate improve as we get into the back half?Nancy Buese Yeah.Marc Bianchi Yeah. Okay. Nancy, sticking with you, the share repurchase was — there wasn’t any in the first quarter. You’re talking about 60%, 80% return of free cash flow in the year. I’m just curious, is it more about price sensitivity on the stock price? Are there M&A that is being contemplated?
Is it just a matter of when to hold on to some more cash because of what’s going on in the banking system? Maybe you could just sort of talk to those drivers?Nancy Buese Yeah, absolutely, and you have it right. We do still plan to buy back shares at some point this year, and that’s all in line with our priority of returning 60% to 80% of our free cash flow back to shareholders. But we have paused for the moment. And you’re right, the markets are a little choppy right now. So it’s a good time to just be cautious. We’ve also engaged in quite a bit of M&A activity over the last few quarters.So we’re letting that settle even with just – most of that’s completed with the closing of Altus in April, but it is a good time for us to let the organization settle and then as you know, our free cash flow is very much back-half weighted.
So we’re just kind of restoring our cash levels at the moment, letting that build throughout the course of the year, but we do intend to resume buybacks at some point later this year.Marc Bianchi Thank you so much.Operator Thank you. One moment for next question. And our next question coming from the line of David Anderson with Barclays. Your line is open.David Anderson Good morning, Lorenzo.Lorenzo Simonelli Hey, Dave.David Anderson I was just shifting back to the Middle East. Hi. Good morning. I was wondering, if you could talk about Abu Dhabi in specifically. You have a very unique position there with ADNOC Drilling. I believe you’ve been on your integrated services, you’re on something like 40 rigs right now with ADNOC Drilling.I was wondering how that’s progressing.
Maybe kind of talk about some of the work that you’re pulling in there? And where that number is going to — we just saw an announcement with at Upper Zack (ph) was just awarded all IBS work. So maybe can you just talk about that business in particular and how that’s developing and where you see that going?Lorenzo Simonelli Dave, I should be asking you the question considering you were just out there in the Middle East. But look, we feel very good about the relationship that we have with the ADNOC Drilling. And as you know, it started several years ago, also our position within UAE.And I’d say that with the announcements that also ADNOC has made relative to the commitment to increasing production, we see positive momentum with the — also ADNOC Drilling, and we have a specific technologies that are appropriate that allow the time to drill to come down and drive efficiencies and productivity.
So I’d say, we are optimistic about the future growth and obviously participating with ADNOC Drilling.David Anderson Do you need to bring in more equipment in there? I mean, I guess, capacity is going to be one of the things we’re going to be talking about quite a bit going forward. But just in terms of that business itself, do you need to pull-in more? Do you need to build more? Do you have enough kind of on hand?Lorenzo Simonelli Dave, with the partnership we have, we look on an annual basis at what is required from a tool perspective. And one of the key ways in which we drive efficiency and also we drive better performance is by having these discussions early. So rest assured, without not drilling, we’re tied to the hip. So anything that they got planned, we already — we’re discussing 12 months ago to make sure that we were ready for them.David Anderson And then just looking at bigger picture at this region.
Middle East Asia was essentially flat in 4Q, I’m sorry, in the first quarter. I’m assuming that weakness was because of product sales that weren’t recurring from the fourth quarter. But can you just talk about how revenue kind of — should progress throughout the rest of the year in this part of the market make sure we kind of stay at this sort of 20% year-on-year growth clip throughout the year? Should that be the expectation here?Lorenzo Simonelli Yeah. You’re correct in your assessment relative to the difference between fourth quarter and first quarter. At the fourth quarter, you do traditionally have direct tool sale to take place to take place in the first quarter. As you look forward, again, we’re continuing to see that there’s good international growth within Southeast Asia as well, and we should continue to see that progression.David Anderson Okay.
