QatarEnergy LNG awards $4bn gas project package
22 December 2025
A consortium comprising the Italian contractor Saipem and state-owned China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) has secured the EPCI contract for the COMP5 package. The contract value is $4bn, with Saipem declaring its share to be worth $3.1bn.
Milan-headquartered Saipem said the contract will run for about five years. The scope of work comprises engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of two compression complexes, each including a compression platform, a living quarters 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 tonnes.
Offshore installation operations will be carried out by Saipem’s De He construction vessel in 2029 and 2030.
MEED previously reported that the following contractors submitted bids for the NFPS phase two COMP5 package:
- Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India)
- McDermott (US)
- Saipem/China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (Italy/China)
QatarEnergy LNG, formerly Qatargas, is said to have issued the tender for the NFPS phase two COMP5 package in the first quarter of the year.
Contractors submitted technical bids for the COMP5 package in late June, while commercial bids were submitted by 8 October, as per sources.
Based upon initial evaluation of bids by QatarEnergy LNG, L&TEH has emerged as the lowest bidder for the COMP5 package, followed by McDermott, with the consortium of Saipem and COOEC in third place, MEED reported in late October.
In the weeks following that, the project operator is said to have engaged all bidders for a final round of negotiations, during which the consortium of Saipem and COOEC is believed to have “clinched the deal”, according to sources.
The detailed scope of work on the COMP5 package covers the EPCI work on the following:
- Two gas compression platforms, each weighing 30,000-35,000 tonnes, plus jacket
- Two living quarters platforms, plus jacket
- Two gas flare platforms, plus jacket
- Brownfield modification work at two complexes
NFPS scheme
QatarEnergy’s North Field liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansion programme requires the state enterprise to pump large volumes of gas from the North Field offshore reserve to feed the three phases of the estimated $40bn-plus programme.
QatarEnergy has already invested billions of dollars in engineering, procurement and construction works on the two phases of the NFPS project, which aims to maintain steady gas feedstock for the North Field LNG expansion phases.
The second NFPS phase will mainly involve building gas compression facilities to sustain and gradually increase gas production from Qatar’s offshore North Field gas reserve over the long term.
Saipem has been the most successful contractor on the second NFPS phase, securing work worth a total of $8.5bn.
QatarEnergy LNG awarded Saipem a $4.5bn order in October 2022 to build and install gas compression facilities. The main scope of work on the package, which is known as EPCI 2, covers two large gas compression complexes that will comprise decks, jackets, topsides, interconnecting bridges, flare platforms, living quarters and interface modules.
The gas compression complexes – CP65 and CP75 – will weigh 62,000 tonnes and 63,000 tonnes, respectively, and will be the largest fixed steel jacket compression platforms ever built.
Following that, Saipem won combined packages COMP3A and COMP3B of the NFPS project’s second phase in September last year.
The scope of work on the combined packages encompasses the EPCI of a total of six platforms, approximately 100 kilometres (km) of corrosion resistance alloy rigid subsea pipelines of 28-inches and 24-inches diameter, 100km of subsea composite cables, 150km of fibre optic cables and several other subsea units.
Separately, QatarEnergy LNG awarded McDermott the contract for the NFPS second phase package known as EPCI 1, or COMP1, in July 2023. The scope of work on the estimated $1bn-plus contract is to install a subsea gas pipeline network at the North Field gas development.
In March this year, India’s Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH) won the main contract for the combined 4A and 4B package, which is the fourth package of the second phase of the NFPS project and is estimated to be valued at $4bn-$5bn.
The main scope of work on the package is the EPCI of two large gas compression systems that will be known as CP8S and CP4N, each weighing 25,000-35,000 tonnes. The contract scope also includes compression platforms, flare gas platforms and other associated structures.
LTHE sub-contracted detailed engineering and design works on the combined 4A and 4B package to French contractor Technip Energies.
NFPS first phase
Saipem is also executing the EPCI works on the entire first phase of the NFPS project, which consists of two main packages.
Through the first phase of the NFPS scheme, QatarEnergy LNG aims to increase the early gas field production capacity of the North Field offshore development to 110 million tonnes a year.
QatarEnergy LNG awarded Saipem the contract for the EPCI package in February 2021. The package is the larger of the two NFPS phase one packages and has a value of $1.7bn.
Saipem’s scope of work on the EPCI package encompasses building several offshore facilities for extracting and transporting natural gas, including platforms, supporting and connecting structures, subsea cables and anti-corrosion internally clad pipelines.
The scope of work also includes decommissioning a pipeline and other significant modifications to existing offshore facilities.
In addition, in April 2021, QatarEnergy LNG awarded Saipem two options for additional work within the EPCI package, worth about $350m.
QatarEnergy LNG awarded Saipem the second package of the NFPS phase one project, estimated to be worth $1bn, in March 2021.
Saipem’s scope of work on the package, which is known as EPCL, mainly covers installing three offshore export trunklines running almost 300km from their respective offshore platforms to the QatarEnergy LNG north and south plants located in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Saipem performed the front-end engineering and design work on the main production package of the first phase of the NFPS as part of a $20m contract that it was awarded in January 2019. This provided a competitive advantage to the Italian contractor in its bid to win the package.
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