Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem and its consortium partner, the local Petrobel, have secured $1.2bn of additional engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) work at Egypt’s Zohr offshore natural gas field.

The work was awarded by Italian energy major Eni, with a contract addendum, according to a statement.

Petrobel is a 50:50 joint venture between state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Eni subsidiary IEOC.

Petrobel is tasked with the development of Zohr on behalf of PetroShorouk, a team of Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, IEOC, Russia’s Rosneft, the UK’s BP and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum.

The work includes the installation of a second 30-inch diameter gas export pipeline, infield clad lines, umbilicals and electrical/fiber optic cable, as well as the execution of EPCI work for the 10-well, deepwater field development, Saipem said.

The company said it plans to deploy highly specialised vessels, including ultra-deep water pipelayer, and subsea construction vessels for the new scope of work.

Eni has contracted the EPCI works as part of the Zohr project’s Ramp Up to Plateau phase, which is scheduled to begin in January 2019.

In September, Eni was able to achieve an output of 2 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) from Zohr, and is working towards hitting peak production of 2.7 billion cf/d from the project next year.

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