Saudi Aramco awarded the Italian oil service group Saipem two contracts for new offshore engineering and construction contracts worth around $1b. The  contracts include development of Marjan, Zuluf in the Arabian Gulf, in addition to and Safaniya field the world’s largest offshore oilfield with 37bb of heavy crude in place, reported Reuters.

Under the terms of the Aramco deals, Saipem will provide design, engineering, procurement, construction, installation and implementation of subsea systems in addition to the laying of pipelines, subsea cables and umbilicals, platform decks and jackets, according to Upstream Online.

Detailed scope of work will also include additional maintenance and dismantling on the existing platforms already operational in the fields. Furthermore, the workscope for the fourth phase of Safaniyah includes steel jackets for 10 new wellhead platforms and nine decks, plus offshore pipelines and cables. In addition, Saipem will be responsible for demolishing existing wellhead structures and installing replacements. While the planned work at Marjan and Zuluf involves seven decks, four of which are for Marjan. Also required are 46km of 16-inch pipelines, 31km of 15 kilovolt subsea cables, and topsides fibre-optic cables.

The tender involving Marjan and Zuluf was floated in February, while that for the fourth phase of Safaniyah was offered in March. US McDermott has been involved in most of the Safaniyah upgrade projects over the past decade, and in 2015 was awarded a job from Aramco worth $1.5b, a portion of which covered work on the giant field.