Saipem announces contract sweep

MILAN, January 18, 2017 – Italy’s Saipem further secured its position in Latin America on Tuesday with new contracts in Argentina and Bolivia. The deals are part of a USD 240-million sweep that also includes work in Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

According to the company, the Bolivian contract is for a new medium-sized rig and will last one year. In Argentina, Saipem added to its deal of September 2016 with an eight-month contract for a second hydraulic rig. The individual values of the contracts have not been made public.

Saipem’s CEO Stefano Cao said in a press release, “With these new awards, Saipem consolidates its presence of many years in the Middle East and Latin America with an eye on growth in the drilling market in these strategic areas of the world.”

In another positive development for Argentina’s energy industry, Minister of Energy and Mines Juan Jose Aranguren announced on Monday that 89 companies had submitted bids for 196 new electricity generation projects. If built, the submitted projects will create around 35 GW of energy and USD 30 billion in investment. The bids will now be studied before an auction is held by end of Q2 2017.

The bid round is part of a larger push under President Mauricio Macri to build up failing Argentinian energy infrastructure and meet domestic electricity demand. The country is also in the process of considering a swathe of new renewable energy projects, for which bids were submitted in September 2016.

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