Saudi Aramco has awarded the consortium of India-headquartered Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and UK-based Subsea 7 two contracts for work on its Berri and Zuluf oil and gas fields, a source has told MEED.

The two engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) deals have a combined value of $600m, according to the source. The individual values of the deals are not known.

The L&T/Subsea 7 consortium is part of Aramco’s long-term agreement (LTA) group of offshore contractors.

Aramco is understood to have signed the letter of award with the consortium in December.

The main scope of work for the contractor on the Berri field relates to replacement of pipelines at the offshore infrastructure.

The key scope of work on the Zuluf field covers construction, installation and commissioning of three production deck modules (PDM).

Aramco tendered the two deals to its initial five LTA contractors, which aside from the winning consortium comprise McDermott (US), Dynamic Industries (US), Saipem (Italy) and National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC, UAE).

The Berri oil field produces between 250,000 and 300,000 barrels a day (b/d), while Zuluf’s current output is between 550,000 and 600,000 b/d.

Aramco last year announced a capital expenditure budget of $414bn to be spent over the next nine years, mainly on maintaining its spare capacity in oil and raising its gas output.

Building on and maintaining offshore potential is a core part of the programme, meaning a steady flow of projects will be tendered to the LTA players.

Aramco’s concern that the five original LTA players would not be able to cope with the volume of offshore work in future has led it to expand the LTA pool.

Aramco has added four new entities to the LTA group, meaning nine parties in total will henceforth compete for offshore work tendered to the club.