Saudi Aramco is understood be closing in on the award of two offshore tenders covering 19 platform jackets, with Italy’s Saipem thought to have emerged as the front-runner for the work.

Sources close to the tender process told Upstream that the Saudi Arabian state oil giant is expected to award the two offshore projects within a week or two and the Italian engineering player appears to be “well positioned” for both jobs.

The first tender involves the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of 10 offshore jackets, while the second offers another nine.

The jackets will be installed across a number of Saudi Arabia’s fields, including Marjan, Berri, Zuluf, Safaniyah and Hasbah, in relatively shallow water depths, industry sources suggested.

Initially, the two contracts were thought to be valued at about $400 million, but one industry source indicated that the award value is expected to be lower.

The tender process for both the projects was initiated in January and technical and commercial offers were submitted to Aramco a month later.

The contenders competing for the two offshore tenders included the group of five offshore contractors or consortia that are qualified to participate in Aramco’s prestigious long-term agreement (LTA) arrangments.

Those include US-based contractors McDermott and Dynamic Industries, Saipem, a partnership of India’s Larsen & Toubro with Singapore’s financially troubled Emas and Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC).

Aramco is said to be looking at further expansion of the LTA list and could include another couple of players later this year, industry sources have said.

Upstream reported last month that NPCC is set to secure a new offshore contract from Saudi Aramco covering the fabrication of four offshore decks and associated infrastructure required at its Safaniyah, Zuluf and Berri oilfields.

While no formal announcement has been made yet by NPCC, industry sources have suggested that Aramco has already placed the award — which is likely to be valued between $200 million and $250 million — with the yard in the United Arab Emirates.

Aramco awarded offshore projects worth more than $4 billion last year, despite the industry downturn. The Saudi Arabian state giant is expected to maintain its “robust” spending on brownfield developments this year, despite Opec production cuts. Aramco is preparing to launch another big tender within weeks, covering the sixth development phase of its giant Safaniyah oilfield, thought to be worth more than $700 million.

The fresh development phase of Safaniyah is likely to involve up to 10 slipover jackets and decks, subsea pipelines and cables, as well as the associated demolition of certain facilities, sources said.

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Saipem in pole for Aramco job