The Italian Saipem, in partnership with the Chinese Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd. (COOEC), was awarded by the Qatari QatarEnergy LNG an offshore EPCI contract for the COMP5 package of the North Field Production Sustainability project (NFPS) Offshore Compression Complexes. The total value of the contract is approximately four billion dollars and the part of Saipem amounts to about 3.1 billion. The NFPS project is part of QatarEnergy LNG's strategy to maintain and increase the production capacity of the North Field, the most large field of natural gas "not associated" with the world, located off the northeastern coast of Qatar.

The contract awarded to Saipem, with a total duration of about five years, involves the design, procurement, the manufacture and installation of two compressor plants, each consisting of a compression platform, a Housing Platform, a platform to support flare for the combustion of gases and the related interconnection bridges. Each complex will have a total weight of about 68,000 tons. Offshore installation operations will be conducted by Saipem's construction ship De He indicatively in 2029 and 2030.

This new contract is in addition to the EPCI COMP2 and COMP3, assigned to Saipem and communicated to the market respectively in October 2022 and September 2024, which is currently being execution. Saipem highlighted that the assignment of the COMP5 package consolidates the company's collaboration with QatarEnergy LNG and strengthens the company's presence in Qatar as a partner for the implementation of large-scale complex projects scale.