DESFA, Saipem sign MoU for projects in Balkans, East Med

DESFA, Greece’s natural gas grid operator, and Saipem, a world leader in drilling services as well as in engineering, procurement, construction and installation of pipelines and complex projects in the oil and gas market, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in onshore and offshore projects in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean regions, DESFA has announced in a statement.

The companies will identify opportunities that may create value for customers by combining Saipem’s expertise with DESFA’s ability to develop and manage natural gas transmission systems.

The field of cooperation includes receiving terminals, maritime works, LNG and/or FLNG plant, onshore facilities, onshore and offshore pipeline systems.

For these projects, Saipem and DESFA will jointly deploy resources to render services related to conceptual design/feasibility studies, basic design, FEED, project management, asset integrity and maintenance, health and safety, logistics and planning, environmental engineering and permitting.

“The signing of the MoU between DESFA and Saipem, as well as the expansion of DESFA’s activities in the Balkans and Southeast Europe are fully aligned with our strategy to deploy entrepreneurial extroversion,” noted Konstantinos Xifaras, the chief executive at DESFA. “Cooperating with a world renowned company, such as Saipem, is an utmost recognition of the high level of expertise and competences of DESFA’s personnel,” he continued.

DESFA holds the exclusive right in Greece to operation, maintenance, management, exploitation and development of the National Natural Gas System (NNGS) and the LNG terminal in Revythoussa, an islet in the Saronic Gulf, close to Athens.

Saipem provides a full range of services with contracts on an “EPC” and/or “EPCI” – often “turn-key” – basis.