Saipem awarded over €1.5bn for EPCI

ITALIAN oil and gas contractor Saipem has been awarded the rights to the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) work to develop the Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

The contract is worth over €1.5bn (US$1.66bn) and was awarded by Petrobel, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). The work is due to begin this month and completed by the end of 2017.

Saipem will be responsible for installing a 26-inch gas export pipeline and 14-inch and 8-inch service pipelines, as well as EPCI work for the field development in deep water (up to 1,700 m) of six wells and the installation of the umbilical system.

To ensure Saipem can meet its tight schedule, it will use a fleet of vessels to carry out offshore operations, consisting of the ultra-deepwater last-generation pipelayer, a semisubmersible pipelayer, a trench/pipelay barge, and other specialised vessels.

Petrobel currently has a production rate of 112,000 bbl/d of oil and 25m m³/d of gas from the Zohr field. It aims to use this project and others to increase gas production to 76m m³/d by 2019.

The Zohr gas field was discovered by Eni in August 2015, using a Saipem drillship, which is still operating in the area.