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(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – Thud Saipem in Piazza Affari (FTSE MIB ). The stock is weighed down by a Morgan Stanley report according to which the Saudi Arabian government has decided that Saudi Aramco will maintain maximum oil production capacity at 12 million barrels per day, canceling the 2020 directive which provided for an increase to 13 million.
According to analysts, the move is a sort of “recognition that the current level of spare capacity is already sufficiently high and that the Saudi government no longer expects demand for its oil to reach the level previously expected.” Saipem, analysts point out, «is particularly indebted to the Middle East (33% of the order book in the 9 months of 2023), with a significant percentage of its Hi-Spec fleet for shallow waters contracted to Aramco».
Added to this is this morning’s news of a new accident at the Woodside Scarborough pipeline in Australia. The pipeline installation vessel Castorone lost control of the plant it was installing off the Pilbara coast, forcing the evacuation of workers and damaging the system.
The company confirmed the accident in a statement, specifying that it did not cause injuries to personnel and that there was localized damage to the dorsal and to the Castorone vessel. «The health and safety of our staff, the environment and our assets is an absolute priority for Saipem», he announced.
In 2022 Saipem received from Woodside, as operator in the name and on behalf of Scarborough Joint Venture, the Notice to Proceed (NTP) for a contract relating to the Scarborough project. The Italian group will complete the installation and lining of the export trunkline of the gas pipeline which will connect the Scarborough gas field with the corresponding onshore plant.