Saudi Aramco has provisionally selected Italy’s Saipem to be awarded the contract to upgrade the water injection system at Manifa, Saudi Arabia, according to industry sources.

The Milan-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company has been asked to provide bank guarantees by Saudi Aramco.

“The request for the bank guarantees is a precursor to the official contract award,” said one source. “I would expect Saudi Aramco to announce the award officially at some point over the next couple of weeks.”

The project is estimated to be worth $150m.

Other companies that submitted bids for the project were:

• McDermott (US)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• Dynamic Industries (US)
• NPCC (UAE)

The project involves the installation and pre-commissioning of subsea pipelines, biocide skids and a corrosion inhibition unit at the Manifa central processing unit.

The Manifa field has six-reservoirs. It is about 45 kilometres long and 18 kilometres wide. It lies both onshore and offshore.

The offshore portion is in relatively shallow water with the deepest parts under around 15 metres of water.

Manifa supplies heavy crude oil feedstock to two joint ventures refineries — Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (Satorp) in Jubail and Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (Yasref) in Yanbu.