The story
Founded by Enrico Mattei in 1956.1
Early history
The history of Saipem is deeply connected to Enrico Mattei's management era of Eni during the years of the Italian economic miracle. In the early 1950s Mattei had reorganized the Italian oil industry through a complex system of outright acquisitions and government investments, in order to guarantee Italy's self-reliance in energy.
At first, Mattei focused on natural gas, the only abundant source of energy available in mainland Italy, through Snam, a newly formed gas pipelines company. In the late 1950s, Eni's subsidiary Snam came to head two sub-holdings: Snam Montaggi, created in 1955 to build pipelines and drilling platforms, and Snam Progetti, created in 1956, specializing in tankers. In 1957 drilling company Saip, a subsidiary of Agip (Eni's fuel retailer), was merged with Snam Montaggi to create Saipem.
Saipem was a pioneer in offshore drilling and pipelines construction in Europe; in 1959 it started drilling oil off the coast of Gela, in Sicily and in the early 1960s initiated the Central European Line pipeline, running from the port of Genoa to West Germany, where Eni Deutschland subsidiary was building refineries in Ingolstadt. In addition, in 1961 Saipem built a 1,140 km long oil pipeline in India and a gas pipeline in Iraq.
1970s-1990s
In 1978, Saipem laid down Castoro Sei, a column stabilized semi-submersible pipelay vessel. In the same year Sapiem was commissioned the construction of IGAT-2 pipeline in Iran. About 80 per cent of the line had been completed by 1985, when the works had to be halted because of the Iran-Iraq war.
In 1983, Saipem completed the construction of the massive Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline, linking Algeria to Italy.
In 1988, a joint venture between Saipem and Brown & Root was formed, known as European Marine Contractors, that realized two major projects: Zeepipe, completed in 1993, a 1,416 km natural gas transportation system to transport North Sea natural gas to the receiving terminal at Zeebrugge in Belgium; and a 707 km trunkline connecting Hong Kong with Yancheng 13-1 gasfield, located in the Yinggehai Basin, completed in 1994.
In 1991, Saipem started operating Saipem 7000, the world's second biggest crane vessel.
In 1996, the Maghreb–Europe Gas Pipeline linked Algerian gasfields to Spain.
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In 1995-1999, Saipem was the main contractor for the construction of Europipe I and Europipe II natural gas pipelines, connecting Norway to Germany.
21st century
In the 21st century, Saipem carried on a number of acquisitions, culminating in the purchase of Bouygues Offshore for $1 billion in 2002. In 2006 Saipem merged with Snamprogetti, a subsidiary of Eni specializing in the design and execution of large scale offshore projects for the production and transportation of hydrocarbons. Through the merger, the new group strengthened its position in West Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, and South East Asia and acquired significant technological competence in gas monetization and heavy oil exploitation.
In 2001-2003, Saipem built the offshore section of Blue Stream, a major trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey.
In 2003-2004, Saipem built the Greenstream pipeline, connecting Libya to Sicily.
In 2006, Saipem completed the sealines of the Dolphin Gas Project, connecting Qatar's North Field to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
In 2006-2008, Saipem laid down Scarabeo 8 and Scarabeo 9 ultra deepwater 6th generation semi-submersible drilling rigs, completed in 2011–12.
In 2011, Saipem completed the two 1,220 km gas sealines of Nord Stream 1, a system of offshore natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany and the longest in the world.
In 2013, Saipem was awarded a $3 billion contract for the development of the Egina oil field, located approximately 150 km off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea; the contract included engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and pre-commissioning of 52 km of oil production and water injection flow lines, 12 flexible jumpers, 20 km of gas export pipelines, 80 km of umbilicals, and of the mooring and offloading systems.
On 8 February 2015, Saipem won a $1.8 billion contract to build two 95 km pipelines at the Kashagan field, linking the oil fields in the Caspian Sea to the mainland in Kazakhstan. In November of the same year Saipem completed the pipelay on the 890 km gas export offshore pipeline for the Inpex-led Ichthys LNG project in Australia, what is said was the longest subsea pipeline in the southern hemisphere and the third longest in the world.
In 2016, Eni sold a 12.5% stake in Saipem (retaining a 30% share though), that was acquired by CDP Equity, and subsequently allowed Saipem to scrap the old Eni logo and design its own, with the objective of creating a new, more autonomous company focusing on oilfield services.
In 2019, Saipem entered the airborne wind energy or energy kite systems industry via an agreement with KiteGen.
In May 2024, Saipem secured three new contracts worth $3.7 billion from TotalEnergies EP Angola Block 20 for the Kaminho deepwater project to develop Cameia and Golfinho oil fields.
From Wikipedia’s article on Saipem, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5