LNG

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), the largest oil exporter, is benefiting from the decision to switch to more natural gas as Aramco shares rose after the June share offering and gas plans were advanced by the award of an engineering contract to a unit of Chinese major Sinopec.

Saipem, the Italian energy and LNG engineering company specialising in subsea and oil and gas development projects and pipelines, posted soaring third-quarter revenues of more than €3 billion ($3.2Bln) as global demand surged.

Saipem said revenues to the end of September 2023 amounted to €3.02Bln compared with €2.85Bln in the same three months of 2022.

Quarterly gross earnings increased to €230 million versus €168M in the prior-year quarter. Net profits in the quarter came in at €39M versus a loss of €8M in the same quarter last year.

The Milan-based company said new contracts added to the backlog in the first nine months of 2023 amounted to €11.92Bln, an increase from the €6.92Bln in the corresponding period of 2022.

The backlog as of September 30, 2023 amounted to a total of €27.57Bln. These contracts comprised €15.08Bln in asset-based services, €10.33Bln in Energy Carriers and €2.15Bln in Offshore Drilling of which €2.69Bln was being completed in 2023.

LNG awards

Saipem won contracts earlier in 2023 with three linked to increased LNG production in Angola, Trinidad and Papua New Guinea.

“Group performance further improved with another quarter of growth in terms of revenues, margins, net result and cash generation, confirming the trend already recorded in the first six months of the year,” said Saipem.

“The improvement is recorded in the Offshore, Engineering and Construction and Drilling divisions,” Saipem added.

Saipem is also showing continued traction in the Middle East. After the close of the quarter, on October 5, Saipem, in consortium with National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), signed on behalf of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company a contract related to the Hail and Ghasha development project-package one in the United Arab Emirates.

Saipem said its share of the contract amounted to around $4.1Bln. The project is aimed at developing the resources of the Hail and Ghasha natural gas fields located offshore Abu Dhabi.

The project scope of work encompasses 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 of subsea pipelines.

Adriatic FSRU

As part of the domestic Italian LNG build-out Saipem was awarded a contract by Italian gas system operator SNAM for the construction of the associated facilities for the new Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) to be located in the Adriatic Sea offshore Ravenna as Italy’s fifth import terminal.

The contract, awarded jointly via a temporary venture with two other Italian companies Rosetti Marino and Micoperi, comprises the EPC and installation of a new offshore facility and for the docking and mooring of the FSRU.

The latest Italian floating terminal will be connected to shore via a 26-inch offshore pipeline of 8.5km length, plus a 2.6 km onshore pipeline and a parallel fibre optic cable.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG export plants in Western Australia, has awarded four contracts for front-end engineering and design activities for the proposed Scarborough natural gas project to underpin expansion at the Pluto facility on the Burrup Peninsula.

Italian energy engineering company Saipem said it expected to be awarded an additional ramp-up contract worth over $1.2 billion for the huge Egyptian Zohr natural gas field in the East Mediterranean that has enabled the nation to end liquefied natural gas imports and to re-start LNG exports.

July 25 (LNGJ) - Italian energy engineer Saipem, one of the company’s retained for the Nigerian LNG expansion front-end engineering and design contest, posted first-half revenues of 3.79 billion euros ($4.42Bln) and adjusted operating profit for the period of 255 million euros versus 260M euros in the first half of 2017. “We recorded a substantial volume of new contracts in all business sectors, especially in Offshore and Onshore Engineering and Construction, in which we are achieving a balance between oil and non-oil related projects as well as penetration in new geographical areas,” said Stefano Cao, Saipem Chief Executive. “We expect that commercial activity will maintain its momentum in the second half,” added the CEO. “We have also approved a new phase of reorganisation, which will be fully operative by the end of the year,” he stated.