LNG

Italian contractor Saipem has revised down its 2026 earnings guidance to factor in extra costs related to the conflict in the Middle East. EBITDA is now forecast at €1.75 billion, down from previously expected €1.9 billion, as the Milan-based group had to spend around €70 million in the first half to improve security for its staff ​in the Persian Gulf region and to overcome ​logistical challenges related to the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

Saipem has shipped a key offshore platform jacket for Romania’s Neptun Deep project, led by OMV Petrom and Romgaz with up to €4 billion investment combined. Neptun Deep is expected to produce about 100 bcm of natural gas, bolstering Eastern Europe’s energy security and reducing dependence on imported LNG.

Saipem, the Italian engineer for LNG, oil and pipeline gas subsea contracts, reported a rise in earnings as well as a surge in new contracts and revenues, giving the company a backlog of €30 billion ($33Bln) and signalling an improving energy sector.

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.

July 15 (LNGJ) - Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specialising in subsea work, has been awarded two offshore projects in Saudi Arabia under an existing long-term agreement with Saudi Aramco. “The overall contract amount of the two projects is approximately $500 million,” said Saipem.

   “Saipem’s scope of work under the first project involves the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of a crude trunkline of 50 kilometres with a diameter of 42 inches for the Abu Safa field, while the activities related to the second project involve the production maintenance programs of the Berri and Manifa fields,” the company added.

Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specialising in subsea work, has been awarded three contracts valued at $3.7 billion in the LNG exporting nation of Angola and on behalf of French major TotalEnergies.

The three Saipem awards are in Angola’s Block 20 oil and gas fields for the Kaminho project relating to the development of the Cameia and Golfinho oil fields, located 100 kilometres (62 miles) off the coast of Angola.

The first contract refers to the engineering, procurement, construction, transportation and commissioning of the Kaminho floating production storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The second contract entails the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the same FPSO for a firm period of 12 years with a potential eight-year extension, leveraging on the expertise acquired from three other FPSOs currently operating in Angolan waters.

The third contract involves the engineering, procurement, supply, construction, installation, pre-commissioning and assistance for the commissioning and start-up of a Subsea, umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) package which includes about 30 kilometres of 8-inch and 10-inch subsea flowlines and risers, and umbilicals.

“The associated structures will be fabricated in Saipem’s local yard in Ambriz,” said Milan-based Saipem.

Investment decision

Saipem’s statement followed meetings held on May 20 in Angola by Patrick Pouyanné, the Chairman and Chief Executive of TotalEnergies, to announce a final investment decision for the Kaminho project.

Pouyanné held talks with João Lourenço, the President of Angola, and Diamantino Azevedo, the Minister of Mineral Resources.

Pouyanné also held discussions with Angola’s leading state energy executives including Paulino Jerónimo, Chairman and CEO of the National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) and Gaspar Martins, Chairman and CEO of national oil and gas company Sonangol.

TotalEnergies holds 40 percent of the Kaminho project and the other Block 20/11 partners are Malaysia’s Petronas with 40 percent and Sonangol with a 20 percent holding.

The Kaminho project’s Cameia and Golfinho fields are located in water depths of 1,700 metres and the venture is the first large deepwater development in Angola’s Kwanza Basin.

“The first development in the maritime zone of the Kwanza Basin is important to showcase the opening of new oil frontiers in Angola, and it’s part of our strategy to keep Angola on the top of African oil producers, bringing important income to our economy,” stated ANPG’s Jerónimo.

Sonangol’s CEO Martins said that the FID for the Kaminho project shows the commitment and efforts made by the Angolan government as well as the partners TotalEnergies, Sonangol and Petronas.

“The right conditions are now in place to contribute to increasing national production of oil and natural gas, and with that the revenues for the country,” Martins stated.

May 20 (LNGJ) - Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specialising in subsea work, has been awarded a new offshore contract by Azule Energy of Angola, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and UK major BP. The contract, valued at $850 million, is for the development of the Ndungu Field as part of the Agogo Integrated West Hub Project, located 180 kilometres off the coast of Angola.

   Saipem said the scope of work entailed the engineering, fabrication, transportation and installation of around 60km of rigid pipelines and of the subsea facilities at a depth of around 1,100 metres, as well as the transportation and installation of flexible flowlines, jumpers and 17km of umbilicals. “Fabrication activities will be executed at Saipem’s Ambriz yard in Angola,” said Saipem.

Saipem, the Italian subsea company with contracts for LNG project, pipeline natural and oil worldwide reported a more than 40 rise in earnings as the current backlog was almost €30 billion ($32Bln) with over €2Bln in new contracts.

Saipem, the Italian subsea company with contracts for LNG project, pipeline natural and oil worldwide reported a 19 percent jump in revenues as new contracts also built the backlog to more than $32Bln.

Saipem, the Italian LNG and energy engineering company, has completed the South Gas Compression Plant Pipelines project to increase the life of a substantial number of natural gas wells in the Haradh and Hawiyah fields in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) project is aimed at reducing the use of oil and increasing the use of natural gas as the primary fuel for several local industries.

Saipem, based in Milan, said the scope of work encompassed the procurement and construction of a system of pipelines of various diameters, with an overall length of over 700 kilometres (435 miles).

The venture additionally included flowlines, trunklines, and transmission lines, as well as associated facilities for the transportation of gas from various points of storage and distribution inside the facilities, such as liquid station separations, remote headers, gas gathering manifolds and off plot tie-in facilities.

Challenges

“The project presented challenges from a logistics, safety, security and project management point of view,” stated Saipem.

Dhahran-based Aramco has said that increasing natural gas output was a strategic priority and the company had successfully advanced multiple gas projects in 2023.

The Haradh and Hawiyah fields for associated gas are key projects.

Aramco’s Hawiyah Gas Plant expansion is part of the Haradh gas increment programme.

Construction at the Hawiyah Unayzah Gas Reservoir Storage, the first underground natural gas storage project in the Kingdom, has also been completed and injection activities commenced.

Aramco made two large natural gas field discoveries in November 2023 while additionally starting output in a Saudi shale gas basin called South Ghawar.

The two Saudi natural gas field discoveries were made in the Eastern Province and the Empty Quarter regions respectively.

Saudi shale gas

Analysts said that the discovery of more natural gas reservoirs is expected to further Aramco’s strategic plans to increase gas production by over 50 percent with the aim of meeting all domestic demand by 2030.

Earlier in November Aramco announced that it had begun production of unconventional tight gas from its South Ghawar operational area, two months ahead of schedule.

Unconventional tight gas, also known as shale gas, is typically found in reserves where hydrocarbons are tightly trapped within rock layers.

Extracting this gas demands specialised techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for extraction.

The commissioned facilities at South Ghawar currently have a processing capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet per day of raw gas and 38,000 barrels per day for condensate.