Italy’s Saipem, a leading provider of engineering, drilling, and construction services, has been awarded two major contracts worth approximately $1 billion for work on offshore oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia. These contracts, awarded by Saudi Aramco, further strengthen Saipem’s presence in the region and deepen its longstanding partnership with the Saudi energy giant.
For the offshore components of these projects, Saipem will deploy its regional construction vessels. The fabrication work will be carried out at Saipem’s Saudi-based yard, Saipem Taqa Al-Rushaid Fabricators, which is aimed at enhancing local industry capabilities.
These latest contracts come shortly after Saipem secured two other offshore projects from Aramco worth around $500 million, focusing on the Abu Safah field and the production maintenance programs for the Berri and Manifa fields.
The first of these new contracts, awarded under Saipem’s long-term agreement with Aramco, involves engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services. Saipem will handle the installation of three production deck modules (PDMs), 33 kilometers of subsea rigid pipelines (12 and 16 inches in diameter), and 34 kilometers of subsea power cables. The work will take place in the Marjan oil and gas field, where Offshore Oil Engineering (COOEC) recently delivered a major collection and transportation platform. This platform, one of the most powerful of its kind, is designed to collect and transport up to 24 million metric tons of crude oil and 7.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
COOEC’s work on this eight-leg Marjan platform, weighing over 17,200 tons and taller than a 24-story building, marks its first project with Aramco. This platform is expected to give Marjan the world’s largest offshore oil and gas processing capacity once operational. The Marjan field, located in the Arabian Gulf off Saudi Arabia’s East Coast, is one of the region’s largest oil and gas fields.
The second contract awarded to Saipem by Aramco involves the EPCI of three jackets, five production deck modules, 22 kilometers of subsea rigid pipelines (16 inches in diameter), 5 kilometers of subsea flexible pipelines, and 35 kilometers of subsea power cables. These installations will be carried out in the Zuluf and Safaniyah oil fields.
Located approximately 200 kilometers north of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, the Marjan, Zuluf, and Safaniyah fields are among the largest offshore oil fields in Saudi Arabia. The Safaniya Offshore Producing Department (SOfPD), responsible for these fields, is committed to meeting energy demands while reducing environmental impact. This aligns with Aramco’s broader goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
In October 2022, Aramco established a $1.5 billion sustainability fund to support its energy transition, focusing on technologies that will help achieve its net-zero ambitions. SOfPD has already implemented several initiatives to reduce energy consumption, including the shutdown and mothballing of the high-energy-consuming Safaniya GOSP-4 plant and optimizing power for electrical submersible pumps in the Zuluf field.
These initiatives have resulted in a 38.9% improvement in energy efficiency, saving 25.3 MWh over 12 months and avoiding costs of $7.4 million. The Zuluf crude oil increment project, expected to be completed by 2026, will significantly increase the processing capacity of the Zuluf field, handling up to 00,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.
