Saipem, Desfa Sign Agreement
Italian contractor Saipem late last week signed a memorandum of understanding with Greek gas grid Desfa for cooperation on onshore and offshore gas projects within the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean regions.
The companies will identify opportunities to create value for customers by combining Saipem’s expertise in engineering, procurement, construction and installation of onshore and offshore gas projects, which contribute a large part of the company’s diversified backlog and order intake, with Desfa’s competencies in the development and management of natural gas transmission systems.
Saipem and Desfa said April 22 they will cooperate on projects related to subsea field developments, pipeline systems and transport and export infrastructures, offshore fixed facilities, receiving terminals, maritime works, LNG, and floating LNG plant and onshore facilities, jointly deploying resources to render services which could include design/feasibility studies, front end engineering design, project management, and other services.
In mid-April, Saipem was awarded the contract to lay the 36-inch, 105-km offshore section of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project – the joint venture of BP, Azerbaijan's state Socar, European gas grid operators Snam, Fluxys and Enagas and the Swiss utility Axpo - between Albania and southeast Italy. Neither side disclosed the value of the contract. However a note by Italian bank Mediobanca, written before the contract was awarded, estimated that the likely award would be worth €200 million. On April 25 Socar said that work on completing phase 2 of the BP-led Azerbaijan Shah Deniz project is now 70%-complete; gas from Shah Deniz will flow through Turkey to Greece, and on its final leg through TAP to reach Italy.
Greece's planned privatisation of Desfa has hit the buffers, because of competition hurdles imposed by the European Commission. It had originally been planned that Socar in 2013 would acquire a two-thirds majority stake, while Athens would retain one-third.
Mark Smedley