Original news was published on 11 December, 2015

Italian engineering contractor Saipem has been awarded a contract to lay 430 kilometers of pipeline in the Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea by Norwegian energy firm Statoil.

Saipem will use the laying vessel CastorOne to install the pipeline and has scheduled operations to begin in the second quarter of 2018. The project is the largest ever attempted in the area and the unprecedented scale is expected to drive significant demand for project cargo.

The contract was awarded by Statoil subsidiary Johan Sverdrup partners alongside contracts to fabricate and transport an estimated 243,000 tons of steel for the oil and gas pipelines.

Japanese trading conglomerate Mitsui & Co. will manufacture the steel at its Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal steelworks while Malaysian firm Wasco Coatings will make the external anti-corrosion treatment, internal flow coating and concrete weight coating.

“We have selected a solid team of principal suppliers for the Johan Sverdrup export pipelines, and are thus well positioned to deliver first oil from Johan Sverdrup from late 2019,” said Kjetel Digre, Statoil senior vice president.

The contracts are valued at US$286 million and part of more than US$5.7 billion awarded for the project to date. About 75 percent of the contracts awarded are to Norway-based firms.

*NEWS SOURCE