Page 16 - EurOil Week 48 2021

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demand just ahead of winter. to Italian EPC specialist Saipem for the storage facilities, also owns 20% of the TAP
President Putin told the outgoing German transport and installation (T&I) of 175km of pipeline that carries Azeri gas into Italy.
Chancellor Angela Merkel in September pipelines tying Sakarya back to the Turkish The deal reflects the accelerating pace of
that Russia is open to increasing gas exports mainland. planning taking place in the global oil and
to Europe and would happily send more According to Saipem, the pipelaying will gas industry, keen to adapt as governments
gas via Ukraine if Europe would commit to take place in Spring 2022 with the contract and activists ramp up the pressure to slash
sufficiently large volumes with long-term covering the transport and installation (T&I) greenhouse gases.
contracts. of pipelines to a water depth of 2,200 metres. Eni is working on spinning off a series of
It added that the work will be conducted oil and gas operations into new joint ventures
mainly by its Castorone vessel. to help reduce debt and fund its shift to low-
Turkey selects London- Schlumberger and Luxembourg-registered carbon energy.
Meanwhile, US oilfield services specialist
“This transaction allows us to free up new
listed Wood as project Subsea 7 were awarded an engineering, resources to be used on our energy transition
path,” Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi
procurement, construction and installation
management partner (EPCI) contract in October covering said.
Eni, one of the biggest foreign oil and gas
subsurface solutions to onshore production,
for Sakarya gas field including well completions, subsea production producers in Africa, has a series of strategic
systems (SPS), subsea umbilicals, risers,
agreements with Algerian state-owned energy
development flowlines (SURF), and an early production group Sonatrach.
facility (EPF) for the field. The EPF will be
Italy imports more than 90% of its overall
Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) this week capable of handling 350mn cubic feet (9.9mn gas needs and Algerian gas currently accounts
appointed UK-based Wood Group as cubic metres) per day of gas. for around 30% of flows.
integrated project management consultant In August, TPAO lit the first gas flare at The pipeline companies involved in the
(PMC) for the development of the Sakarya the new field and performed the first flow deal posted net income of around 90 million
gas field. The field is located in the Black Sea, test at Turkali-2. That well flowed at 22mmcf euros in 2020.
150km off Turkey’s northern Zonguldak coast. (0.623mcm) per day, less than the 26.5mmcf Snam was advised by UniCredit, while Eni
TPAO discovered 320bn cubic metres of (0.75mcm) per day recorded in July during a was advised by Rothschild.
gas at the Tuna-1 well in August 2020 and this test which suggested the reservoir could flow
was subsequently upgraded to 405bcm two at around 42.5mmcf (1.2mcm per day).
months later and renamed Sakarya. In early A reservoir-1 test at Turkali-2 ran at Lundin reportedly
June, the company announced that it had 0.65mcm per day earlier this month.
found another 135bcm with the Asmara-1 considering sale
well, taking the total volume discovered so
far at Sakarya to 540bcm. However, in its Snam buys stake in Swedish oil and gas company Lundin Energy
statement to press, Wood said that the field is considering a potential sale, Bloomberg
had “a confirmed capacity of 405[bcm] of Algerian pipelines to Italy News reported on Monday, citing unnamed
natural gas”. sources.
On completion of the first development Italy’s Snam has agreed to buy a stake in Lundin, which has a market value of about
phase in 2023, 10mn cubic metres (mcm) per pipelines carrying Algerian gas into Italy in a $10 billion, is studying strategic alternatives
day of would be delivered to the Turkish grid, move that could pave the way for hydrogen that could also include a merger or asset
helping to build the energy resilience of the imports from Africa into Europe. disposals, the report said.
country, Wood said. Europe’s biggest gas infrastructure group Responding to what it called market
“The new discovery could alleviate much said on Saturday it would pay energy company rumours, Lundin said it “continuously
of Turkey’s domestic gas import dependence, Eni 385 million euros ($436 million) for a engages” in opportunities and discussions that
most of which comes from Russia, Azerbaijan 49.9% stake in the pipelines to jointly control could be of value to its owners.
and Iran via pipelines, along with liquefied the assets with its fellow Italian company. “As of today there are no conclusive
natural gas from several countries including Snam, which makes most of its money decisions that have been made in relation to
Nigeria, Algeria and the US,” Wood said. from managing Italy’s natural gas transport any such discussions,” the company said in a
A Wood team will carry out the integrated grid, has pledged to spend more on new, clean statement.
project management and engineering business lines such as green hydrogen. The company’s shares rose 10% in
verification for the first engineering, Like other European gas grid operators, Stockholm trade.
procurement, construction and installation it is upgrading its national network to be Lundin’s oil and gas operations are all in
(EPCI) phase of the project which includes hydrogen ready. Norway, where it owns a 20% stake in the
engineering, procurement and installation of “In the future, North Africa could also Equinor-operated Johan Sverdrup field as well
the subsea production system, gas transport become a hub for producing solar energy and as a range of smaller fields.
pipeline and umbilical, and the onshore green hydrogen,” Snam CEO Marco Alvera
processing facility in Filyos. said in a joint statement with Eni.
A week earlier, TPAO awarded a contract Snam, which runs most of Italy’s gas

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