Italian offshore energy services firm Saipem has secured $4 billion engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract from QatarEnergy LNG for work at a project aimed at sustaining the production of the North Field natural gas reservoir offshore Qatar.

This contract follows the EPC package for the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Complexes Project – [COMP 2], awarded to Saipem in October 2022 and currently being executed.

The new contract covers the combined COMP3A and COMP3B scope of the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Program, whose goal is to secure the sustained production of the North Field gas reservoir.

Saipem’s scope of work encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of six platforms as well as approximately 100 km of corrosion resistance alloy rigid subsea pipelines of 28 inches and 24-inch diameter, 100 km of subsea composite cables, 150 km of fiber optic cables and several other subsea facilities.

Qatar’s North Field is one of the largest natural gas field in the world, with recoverable reserves of more than 900 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF), or approximately 10% of the world’s known reserves.

The North Field lies off the north-east shore of the Qatar peninsula and covers an area of more than 6,000 square kilometres, equivalent to about half the land area of the State of Qatar.

In February 2024, QatarEnergy announced it is proceeding a new LNG expansion project, the North Field West project, to raise the nation’s LNG production capacity to 142 million tons per annum (MTPA) before the end of this decade.

Additional gas quantities in the North Field are estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet, and the condensates reserves from 70 to more than 80 billion barrels, in addition to large quantities of liquefied petroleum gas, ethane, and helium.