LNG

Saipem, the Italian engineer for LNG, oil and pipeline gas subsea contracts, has been chosen to ensure the supervision and any subsea intervention services for the GreenStream gas pipeline linking Libya to Italy and the longest and deepest pipeline ever laid in the Mediterranean Sea.

GreenStream BV, a joint venture comprising Italian oil and gas major Eni and the Libyan National Oil Corporation, awarded the work to Saipem.

The GreenStream system conveys natural gas from coastal facilities at Mellitah in Libya to Gela on the Italian island of Sicily. 

Libya is a former LNG exporter but the Marsa el Brega LNG export plant was destroyed during the years of conflict in the North African nation.

The LNG facility was the third to start operations in 1970, after Alaska and Algeria, and exported 3.2 million tonnes per annum from four liquefaction Trains.

As part of the broader and revived Western Libyan Gas Project, GreenStream connects the Mellitah Compression Station, on the Libyan coast, with the receiving terminal in Gela in Sicily where Libyan gas arrives from two fields.

Libyan gas fields

The first gas field, Bahr Essalam, is offshore the Libyan coast and the second, the Wafa gas field, is located in the Libyan desert near the border with Algeria.

The Libya-Italy Mediterranean pipeline has a diameter of 32-inches and is around 520 kilometres (323 miles) long.

GreenStream crosses points near Malta and with waters depths reaching 1,127 metres.

The Gas Compression Station at Mellitah (MGCS) is beside the Gas Treatment Plant that compresses the gas to be exported and up to the pressure required for the entering the Italian Gas Transport Network.

Asset integrity

The latest contract awarded by GreenStream to Saipem is renewing a work programme in force since 2008 that included asset integrity, inspection, maintenance and emergency pipeline services.

“The activities will be managed by Saipem’s center of excellence for robotics, underwater technologies and services, and executed in coordination with the Saipem Engineering Hub located in Fano in Italy,” Saipem added.

“The scope of work streamlines the integrated management of survey data and critical spares, the provision of specialized engineering services related to asset integrity and readiness services for repair interventions in case of a wide range of damage scenarios,” Milan-based Saipem added.

Specifically, repair interventions in case of damage will be performed via a remotely operated repair system and qualified to operate in water depths of up to 2,200 metres.

“With this award Saipem will contribute to managing the integrity of a fundamental underwater infrastructure for the Italian energy supply system,” the company added.

“It also consolidates the long-term cooperation between Saipem and GreenStream BV, which in 2002 awarded the company a contract for the pipelaying of the said pipeline, a project thanks to which Saipem achieved the record for the deepest pipe-laying with anchors,” Saipem concluded.

Italian energy company Eni has reached an agreement on the combination of substantially all of its upstream assets in the UK with Ithaca Energy to significantly strengthen its presence on the Continental Shelf of the UK, a significant LNG importer.

Eni is one of the most dynamic oil and gas exploration and production companies that has brought transformational energy resources through gas discoveries and development of existing fields offshore nation like Mozambique and Egypt and in others in Asia.

Under the terms of the business combination agreement Eni and Ithaca will combine the Eni UK Business with the existing Ithaca business.

The combination is being funded through the issue to Eni UK of a number of new ordinary shares that represents 38.5 percent of the enlarged issued share capital of Ithaca.

The economic effective date for the combination will be 30 June 2024, with completion expected in the third quarter.

Ithaca is one of the largest independent oil and gas companies on the UKCS, with a substantial resource base and playing a key role in energy supply security in the region, with stakes in six of the 10 largest fields and the top two largest development fields on the UKCS.

Stronger group

“The combination will immediately create an enlarged and stronger group with 2024 production greater than 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and the underlying potential to organically grow to 150,000 boepd by the early 2030s,” said Eni.

“The combination is aimed at replicating the previous successful execution of upstream combinations that Eni has formed using its distinctive Satellite Model including Vår Energi in Norway and Azule Energy in Angola,” the Milan-based company explained.

“The Satellite Model is a strategic response to the challenges and opportunities of energy markets, creating focused and lean companies able to attract new capital to create value through operating and financial synergies and the acceleration of growth,” said Eni.

With this approach Eni said it would thereby strengthen its commitment to the UK after its previous acquisition Neptune Energy.

Eni concluded an agreed acquisition for $4.9 billion of UK-based Neptune in June 2023, gaining key global LNG stakes and gas field assets in Algeria, Indonesia, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Australia.

Under the terms of the takeover, Eni purchased Neptune for $2.6Bln and Eni’s Norwegian-listed subsidiary Vår Energi agreed to pay $2.3Bln to acquire Neptune’s operations in Norway.

Changing market

“This agreement represents a further example of Eni adapting to the demands of the changing energy market and in this case deploying our successful Satellite Model,” said Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi.

“It affords the opportunity to build scale, realising efficient upstream growth and maximising value under a dedicated and focused management structure supported by Eni resources and expertise,” Descalzi added.

“We have moved quickly after the acquisition by Eni of Neptune Energy to transform our competitive position in the UK and we see the opportunity for Eni and Ithaca to realise material long-term value in helping to address the key challenges of security, affordability and sustainability of energy supply,” the CEO stated.

Italian oil and gas major Eni said it closed the sale to Anglo-French energy company Perenco of Eni’s participation interest in several upstream permits in the Republic of the Congo in West Africa.

Italian energy company Eni said it started installation work on the hull of the Coral South floating liquefied natural gas production plant to be deployed offshore Mozambique for start-up in 2022.