Snamprogetti will be incorporated into Saipem, completing the process started by Saipem’s purchase of Snamprogetti in 2006 in a cash deal worth $800m (MEED 10:3:06).

Saipem says the objective of the merger is to rationalise the holdings of the group and improve its management efficiency.

Until two years ago, both companies were part of Italy’s Eni, the world’s fifth largest oil company. Eni still has a large minority stake in Saipem, with the rest publicly owned.

Snamprogetti, best known as an onshore oil field and downstream development contractor, derives more than 50 per cent of its turnover from the Middle East. It is in line to win almost $4bn of work this year from three major contracts in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It submitted the lowest bid for booster station 160 and the second phase effluent water injection facilities programme for Kuwait Oil Company, and for the first package on the Manifa field development scheme for Saudi Aramco (MEED 16:5:08).

Saipem is more geared toward offshore work, and is carrying out several subsea pipeline and platform projects for clients across the region.

It is unclear if the Snamprogetti brand will remain, or whether all work carried out in future by the company will be under the Saipem name.