Italian oilfield services player Saipem has won a pair of new contracts with European majors Eni and BP worth a combined $700 million for work offshore Congo and the US Gulf of Mexico, respectively.
The fresh awards were announced one day after Saipem secured a $1 billion contract with Mellitah Oil & Gas for the development of the shallow-water Bouri natural gas field in Libya.
According to Saipem, the contract secured with Eni is for conversion of the semi-submersible drilling rig Scarabeo 5 into a separation and boosting production unit offshore Congo.
Once converted, the Scarabeo 5 will receive output from other platforms, separate the gas from liquids and boost the gas in order to feed the nearby Tango floating liquefied natural gas unit.
The contract entails the engineering, procurement, construction, transportation and commissioning of the Scarabeo 5, which will be installed in water depths of about 35 metres northwest of the Djeno terminal offshore Congo.
Saipem said commissioning offshore works and start-up of the new production facility are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Eni has a second FLNG unit under construction for installation offshore Congo. Once the two vessels are online, overall LNG production capacity in the Marine XII concession will reach 3 million tonnes per annum in 2025.
Saipem also said it has been awarded a contract by BP related to the Argos semi-submersible production platform in the US Gulf of Mexico.
BP in April started output from Argos, its fifth production development in the region, in 1400 metres of water.
The new contract will see the Italian services company using its Saipem Constellation vessel to run marine activities required for the project.
Argos is the centrepiece of BP’s Mad Dog phase two project, which extends the life of the supergiant deep-water field discovered in 1998.
Besides Argos, BP operates another four platforms in the US Gulf of Mexico — Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunder Horse.
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