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Contractors in Saudi Aramco’s Long-Term Agreement (LTA) pool of offshore service providers have submitted bids for five offshore tenders covering the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of structures at the Abu Safah, Berri, Manifa, Marjan, Safaniya and Zuluf offshore oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia.

The tenders are numbers 167, 168, 169, 170 and 171 on Aramco’s Contract Release and Purchase Order (CRPO) system, according to sources.

Aramco issued the five CRPOs to its offshore LTA contractors in December, setting an initial bid submission deadline of 3 February.

The Saudi energy giant has since extended the bid submission deadline several times – to 31 March, 1 June, 1 July and then 30 July – to allow LTA contractors sufficient time to prepare proposals.

At the request of certain bidders, Aramco granted a final two-day extension, with LTA contractors submitting their proposals for the five CRPOs on 1 August, sources told MEED.

The basic scope of EPCI work on the tenders is as follows:

• CRPO 167 – eight jackets at the Marjan field development
• CRPO 168 – four production deck modules (PDMs) at the Abu Safah, Berri, Manifa and Safaniya fields
• CRPO 169 – three PDMs at the Marjan field development
• CRPO 170 – three PDMs at the Marjan field development
• CRPO 171 – three PDMs at the Zuluf field development

Offshore contract awards

Aramco spent almost $11bn on offshore EPCI contracts last year, more than double its capital expenditure on offshore projects in 2024, marking another year of robust upstream project spending in Saudi Arabia.

In July, Aramco selected contractors for five CRPOs – numbers 150, 157, 158, 159 and 160 – worth over $3bn. These involve EPCI work and infrastructure upgrades at the Abu Safah, Berri, Manifa, Marjan and Zuluf offshore fields.

The Saudi energy giant then picked contractors for four more CRPOs that are part of the large-scale project to expand infrastructure at the Zuluf offshore field development. The tenders are CRPOs 145, 146, 147 and 148, and their combined value is estimated to be almost $6bn.

In late December last year, Italian contractor Saipem announced securing contracts for CRPOs 162 and 165. The scope of work on CRPO 162 covers the EPCI of two rigid pipelines – a 30-inch pipeline stretching 23.98 kilometres (km) and a 20-inch pipeline, 10.23km-long; replacement of a flexible 10-inch pipeline that spans 5.1km; and modification work on topsides at the Berri and Abu Safah field developments. The duration of this contract is 32 months, Saipem said.

The scope of work on CRPO 165, lasting 12 months, includes subsea interventions at the Marjan field development and the EPCI of 300 metres of onshore pipeline and associated tie-ins.

In early January 2026, MEED reported that Aramco had selected US-based McDermott International for CRPO 166. The scope of work is understood to have been carved out of the $15bn Marjan offshore field development project, under which Aramco issued contracts for 20 EPCI packages in 2019. McDermott won the largest share of work on the project, securing an estimated $4.5bn of contracts across two packages.

The contract for CRPO 166 was single-sourced to McDermott without a competitive tendering process and issued as a change order, sources told MEED.

Aramco then awarded its second offshore contract of the year, CRPO 156, to Saipem. The scope of work covers the EPCI of a 48-inch trunkline, spanning roughly 65km offshore and 12km onshore, from the Safaniya offshore oil field to the onshore processing facility, plus associated works such as subsea hook-ups.

CRPO 156 comprises the third package in Aramco’s latest expansion phase at Safaniya – the world’s largest offshore oil field, with a production capacity of nearly 1.2 million barrels a day (b/d). Discovered in 1951, the field is located in Gulf waters approximately 265km north of Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran.

MEED also reported that Saipem was selected by Aramco for two more tenders as part of the Safaniya field development expansion phase – CRPOs 154 and 155. The combined contract value for CRPOs 154 and 155 is estimated at $600m, sources said.

In April, state-owned China Offshore Oil Engineering Company won CRPO 161, which covers the EPCI of four gas jackets at the Arabiyah, Hasbah and Karan offshore fields.

Healthy contract award pipeline

Looking ahead, in addition to CRPOs 167-171, which are currently under bidding, Aramco is evaluating bids submitted by its offshore LTA contractors in July and August last year for at least two additional tenders.

These are CRPOs 163 and 164, relating to the EPCI of infrastructure at the Abu Safah, Berri, Karan, Marjan and Safaniya fields.

Separately, the offshore LTA contractors are also bidding for a new tender – CRPO 176 – that was issued by Aramco in May, according to sources.

The scope of work on CRPO 176 covers the EPCI of seven flexible subsea pipelines with a combined length of 17km at the Berri and Marjan offshore field developments.

Aramco’s LTA pool of offshore service providers comprises the following entities:

• Saipem (Italy)
• McDermott International (US)
• Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH, India) / Subsea7 (UK)
• NMDC Energy (UAE)
• Lamprell (UAE/Saudi Arabia)
• China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (China)
• Dynamic Industries (US)
• Sapura Energy (Malaysia)
• TechnipFMC (France) / MMHE (Malaysia)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

In April 2025, Aramco renewed its LTAs with the following contractors, whose contracts had either lapsed or were close to expiry:

• Saipem
• McDermott International
• Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon / Subsea7
• NMDC Energy
• Lamprell
• China Offshore Oil Engineering Company

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