Saudi Aramco awards Safaniya contract to McDermott

State-run Saudi Aramco has awarded McDermott International, Inc. a major contract for engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) services in the Safaniya onshore and offshore field.

The value of the contract ranges between $750 million and $1.5 billion, the Houston-based firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin immediately and will be reflected in McDermott’s Q4 2017 backlog.

Under the deal, McDermott will design, fabricate, install, and pre-commission nine slipover jackets, ten production deck modules, and an electrical distribution platform, along with associated cables and pipelines.

The EPCI services provider landed its fifth contract from the Saudi oil producer under the existing long-term agreement.

Safaniya is currently the world’s largest offshore oilfield by production. This brownfield project is the next phase of a wider campaign to replace aging facilities with electrified platforms to maintain and enhance the field’s production.

“McDermott continues to receive contracts under the long-term agreement for Saudi Aramco’s most considerable projects,” said Linh Austin, McDermott Vice President, Middle East and Caspian. “We plan to execute much of the project from our Al Khobar office and Dammam fabrication facility, increasing our local content in country, in support of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and Aramco’s In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program.”

In 2015, Saudi Aramco awarded McDermott a large brownfield EPCI contract of 12 jackets for offshore oil and gas fields in Saudi waters.