Saudi Aramco has awarded four contracts on offshore oil and gas assets estimated to be worth over $1bn combined, according to sources familiar with the bidding process.

US-based McDermott picked up three contracts, while Italy’s Saipem won one of the deals. The two companies signed the Contract Release Purchase Orders (CRPO) with state-owned Aramco on 19 April.

Four international groups were vying for the contracts after entering the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) programme with Aramco in 2015, giving them exclusive rights to bid for a number of offshore projects. These companies are:

• Dynamic Industries (US)
• Larsen & Toubro (India) / Emas (Singapore)
• McDermott (US)
• Saipem (Italy)

McDermott was awarded contracts for work on the Safaniyah field, the Berri field, and a project on the Marjan and Zuluf fields. Saipem’s CRPO covers brownfield work on the Abu Safah field.

The CRPO contracts are understood to be worth between $150m and $700m.

Aramco is also assessing bids on a larger project to expand the production capacity of its Hasbah sour gas field. All four groups are vying for the contract, which is thought to be worth more than $1.5bn.

It is unclear which company is likely to be awarded the Hasbah contract. MEED has received several conflicting reports from sources familiar with the project following early indications of frontrunners for the deal.

The Hasbah project will expand the production capacity of the gas field by an additional 2 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), which will be piped to the onshore Fadhili gas plant.