Italy’s Saipem secures $4bn contract from QatarEnergy

QatarEnergy LNG said on Sunday that it has awarded an offshore engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $4bn to Italian energy engineering group Saipem.

The state energy firm said the offshore EPC contract will help boost production at the North Field offshore natural gas field, which lies off the northeastern coast of Qatar.

Saipem’s scope of work encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication, and installation of six platforms, approximately 100 km of corrosion-resistant alloy rigid subsea pipelines, 100 km of subsea composite cables, 150 km of fibre optic cables, and several other subsea facilities.

The Italian group said this month it had won two offshore contracts in Saudi Arabia worth about $1bn in total under an existing long-term agreement with oil giant Saudi Aramco.

QatarEnergy, already among the world’s top LNG exporters, will boost its position with its North Field expansion project, which will ramp up the GCC state’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 142 mtpa by 2030.

Earlier in September, the state energy firm signed a deal with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) to buy six additional ultra-large ships (QC-Max vessels) to carry LNG, bringing the number of such vessels it has on order to 128 as part of a fleet expansion programme.

The QC-Max vessels will enhance its capacity to meet the growing global LNG demand.

Read: QatarEnergy expands fleet with six new QC-Max LNG vessels