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.

Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specializing in subsea work, has signed a letter of award with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)  for a new contract related to the Hail and Ghasha natural gas development project in the United Arab Emirates.

Saipem said its share of the contract amounts to around $4.1 billion and has been awarded in consortium with the Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC).

The project is aimed at developing the resources of the Hail and Ghasha natural gas fields, located offshore Abu Dhabi.

The fields lie in the Ghasha Concession block in water depth of around 328 feet and are expected to start commercial production in the next couple of years.

Saipem said the project scope of work encompassed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of four drilling centres and one processing plant to be built on artificial islands, as well as various offshore structures and more than 300 kilometres (187 miles) of subsea pipelines.

Integrated

“The award is in line with Saipem’s unique capability to deliver integrated onshore and offshore projects, providing its clients with a single and reliable interface for complex full-field developments,” said the Milan-based company.

“Saipem will leverage on its state-of-the-art shallow water offshore vessels, its advanced welding technology for corrosion resistant materials, as well as its renowned engineering expertise,” Saipem added.

“This award reinforces Saipem’s long-standing relationship with ADNOC and further consolidates the company’s presence in Abu Dhabi, which includes an Engineering and Project Execution Centre, as well as a new Offshore Logistic base in Zayed Port,” Saipem explained. 

ADNOC’s partners in the Hail and Ghasha gas development with a concession term of 40 years include Italy’s Eni, Germany’s Wintershall Dea and Austria’s OMV.

The multi-billion-dollar Hail and Ghasha project is also seen as playing a vital role in meeting the UAE’s gas self-sufficiency objectives.

It also comes at a time when a second UAE LNG production project plant is being developed at Al Ruwais Industrial City. The Ruwais LNG project consists of two 4.8 million metric tonnes annum liquefaction Trains with a total nameplate capacity of 9.6 MTPA.

The existing liquefaction plant on Das Island in the Arabian Gulf currently has export capacity of 6 MTPA. 

Saipem, the leading liquefied natural gas and energy project engineering company, has signed a new contract with the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) for the Jafurah Gas Development in the Arab kingdom.

The Saudi project also involves the construction of about 835 kilometres (519 miles) of pipelines.

“The project involves the construction of a hydrocarbon collection system and the transport of gas and condensate to the new Jafurah plant, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia,” said Milan-based Saipem.

The Italian company will also build a system to transport water associated with the separation of the treated gas.

The engineering, procurement and construction contract includes the supply of materials and commissioning of the pipelines for the transportation of gas, condensate and production water.

“The award of this new project from Aramco consolidates a long-standing relationship and Saipem's strategic positioning in the Middle East,” said Francesco Caio, Saipem's Chief Executive.

“The agreement confirms the trust and appreciation of our customers in the project management capacity and in the cutting-edge engineering and technological services that Saipem is able to offer,” stated Caio.

Saipem was recently awarded two new offshore contracts for transportation and installation activities for a total amount of more than $600M relating to Australian LNG and Turkish pipeline natural gas projects.

LNG awards

Saipem was chosen by Chevron Corp. in Australia for the Jansz-lo Compression Project, designing and developing the infrastructure and the gas field located around 200 kilometres offshore the northwest coast of Australia, at water depths of around 1,400 metres.

The Jansz-lo field is part of the Chevron-operated Gorgon LNG Project, which is supplied with feed gas from a group of different offshore fields and is one of the world’s largest LNG plants located on Barrow Island.

Additionally, Saipem is working on the offshore portion of the North Field production project in the Arab Gulf underpinning the Qatar’s LNG expansion.

It has also been contracted along with Technip Energies and Russian firm NIPIGas, a subsidiary of the Gazprom Neft Group, to help develop the Arctic LNG II project for Yamal LNG operator, Russia’s Novatek.