Saipem has won the field development contract for the “supergiant” Zohr gas field, located in Egyptian waters in the Mediterranean sea.
The firm was awarded the offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the field by its developer Petrobel, which is a joint venture between Eni and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).
Saipem will install a 26-inch gas export trunkline and 14-inch and 8-inch service trunklines at the field. The company will also conduct EPCI work in deep water of up to 1,700 metres to develop six wells at the field, and will also install the umbilical system.
The contract will deploy Saipem’s ultra-deepwater pipelaying vessel Castorone, the semi-submersible pipelayer Castoro Sei, the trench/pipelay barge Castoro 10 and other specialised vessels.
Work will start in this month and is due to be completed by the end of 2017, Saipem said. The specific value of the Zohr contract was not revealed.
“We are very pleased to have been selected for the important objective of delivering first gas from Zohr before the end of 2017,” Stefano Cao, the company’s CEO, said in a release.
Eni discovered the 3,765-square-km Zohr gas field in August 2015 using the drillship Saipem 10000, which is still operating in the area. The field’s gas reserves are estimated at around 850bn cubic metres.
