Saipem nabs Angolan contract from Total

MILAN, Italy, April 16 (UPI) -- Italian oil services group Saipem said Wednesday it secured more than $4 billion in contracts from French energy company Total for work off the Angolan coast.

Saipem said the main contract, worth more than $3 billion, would be for the development of two Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading units associated with Total's development of the Kaombo oil field. A separate seven-year contract, worth an estimated $1 billion, is for maintenance services for both FPSOs.

The Italian company said both units, which will be owned by Total, will each be designed to treat 115,000 barrels of oil per day and have a storage capacity of 1.7 million barrels of oil.

Total said Monday it would invest $16 billion to develop the deep water Kaombo project off the coast of Angola. The field, which has an estimated 650 million barrels of reserves, should produce 230,000 bpd for Angola once operations begin in 2017.

Saipem said the first FPSO would be delivered by first quarter 2017, with the second unit to follow shortly after.