On December 21, 2025, Saipem, in partnership with Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC), has been awarded an offshore EPCI contract by QatarEnergy LNG for the COMP5 package of the North Field Production Sustainability (NFPS) Offshore Compression Complexes project. The overall value of the contract is approximately 4 billion USD and Saipem’s share amounts to approximately 3,1 billion USD.
The NFPS project is part of QatarEnergy LNG’s strategy of maintaining and increasing the production capacity of the North Field, the world’s largest “non-associated” natural gas field, located off the north-eastern coast of Qatar.
The contract awarded to Saipem, with a total duration of approximately 5 years, comprises engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of two compression complexes, each including a compression platform, a living quarter platform, a flare platform supporting the gas combustion system, and the related interconnecting bridges. Each complex will have a total weight of about 68,000 tons. Offshore installation operations will be carried out by Saipem’s De He construction vessel approximately in 2029 and 2030.
This new contract follows the EPCI COMP2 and COMP3 packages, awarded to Saipem and disclosed to the market in October 2022 and September 2024 respectively, which are currently under execution. The award of the COMP5 package consolidates Saipem’s collaboration with QatarEnergy LNG and reinforces the company’s presence in Qatar as a partner for the execution of complex large-scale projects.
Saipem is a global leader in the engineering and construction of major projects for the energy and infrastructure sectors, both offshore and onshore. Saipem is “One Company” organized into business lines: Asset Based Services, Drilling, Energy Carriers, Offshore Wind, Sustainable Infrastructures. The company has 5 fabrication yards and an offshore fleet of 17 construction vessels owned and 12 drilling rigs, of which 9 owned. Always oriented towards technological innovation, the company’s purpose is “Engineering for a sustainable future”. As such Saipem is committed to supporting its clients on the energy transition pathway towards Net Zero, with increasingly digital means, technologies and processes geared for environmental sustainability. Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, it is present in more than 50 countries around the world and employs about 30,000 people of over 130 nationalities.
It is understood that the NFPS is a key component of QatarEnergy’s strategic plan for liquefied natural gas, aimed at maintaining and enhancing production capacity at the North Field. Located offshore in northeastern Qatar, this gas field is the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field. It will support Qatar’s overall strategy to increase its annual LNG production capacity to 142 million tons by 2030.
COOEC, which secured this nearly 9 billion USD offshore engineering contract in partnership with Saipem, is China’s sole large-scale engineering contractor integrating marine oil and gas development engineering design, procurement, construction, offshore installation, commissioning, maintenance, as well as liquefied natural gas, offshore wind power and refining and chemical engineering. It also ranks among the largest and most capable marine oil and gas engineering contractors in the Asia-Pacific region.
By 2025, COOEC had secured offshore engineering contracts worth billions of dollars. It set a new record for the largest offshore engineering project contract value secured by a Chinese company in the Middle East region through its 4 billion USD EPC project with QatarEnergy for the Bul Hanine oil field (contracts for BH-EPIC1 and BH-EPIC2).
According to information disclosed by COOEC, the Bul Hanine oilfield EPC contract involves management, detailed design, procurement, construction, transportation, installation, and commissioning as part of the overall engineering, procurement and construction work.
The scope of COOEC’s construction includes new structures and modifications to existing facilities within Qatar’s Bul Hanine oil field area, covering the laying of subsea pipelines, subsea cables, umbilicals, and related supporting infrastructure; This encompasses the design, procurement, construction, transportation, installation, and commissioning of over 60 individual offshore oil and gas facilities and 40 subsea pipelines and cables, along with retrofit to existing platforms and decommissioning of abandoned platforms. The project involves processing over 130,000 metric tons of steel.
Notably, COOEC has previously participated in multiple offshore oil and gas field construction projects in Qatar, such as NFA, NFPS COMP2, ISND5-2, and RUYA. Winning the COMP5 contract for the NFPS offshore compression complex project represents another breakthrough in the company’s deepening implementation of its Middle East strategy.