Saipem has bagged a couple of new offshore contracts with a combined worth around $850 million, which include an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) project in the Black Sea and a decommissioning task in the North Sea.

According to the Italian oilfield services company, the first contract, awarded by Turkish Petroleum OTC, is for the second phase of the Sakarya front-end engineering design (FEED) and EPCI project.

It involves the construction and installation of a 175 km long, 16″ pipeline at a water depth of 2,200 meters in the Turkish Black Sea waters. The offshore operations are scheduled to commence in the summer of 2024 and will be carried out using Saipem’s flagship vessel, Castorone.

Saipem said that it had successfully completed the first phase of the Sakarya Gas Field Development project, which was also awarded by Turkish Petroleum OTC in 2021.

The second contract, assigned by EnQuest Heather Limited, is for the decommissioning of the existing Thistle A Platform in the UK sector of the North Sea. The platform is situated approximately 510km northeast of Aberdeen, at a water depth of 162 meters.

Saipem’s scope of work includes engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal of the platform’s jacket and topsides, with the possibility of extending the scope to include additional subsea facilities. The operations will be carried out using the Saipem 7000, one of the largest semi-submersible heavy lifting vessels in the world.

Fabrizio Botta — Saipem Chief Commercial Officer said: “These important awards demonstrate Saipem’s excellent competitive positioning in the Offshore Engineering & Construction market, a sector that is experiencing a full expansion momentum of which Saipem is ready to seize the opportunities.

“The contract awarded in the Black Sea is a confirmation of Saipem’s prominent positioning and of its long-standing relationships with clients. The North Sea contract, finally, is a further example of Saipem’s capabilities in a segment where the combination of innovative engineering, unique assets and safe operations is crucial.”

  Black Sea, EnQuest Heather Limited, Fabrizio Botta, North Sea, Oil and gas industry news, Oil and gas news, Saipem, Turkish Petroleum OTC