Saipem entered 2026 with one of the biggest backlogs in the energy EPC market, with backlog including non-consolidated companies at about €31.6 billion at year-end 2025. The order book is no longer just a headline figure, it is a map of where offshore and complex energy capex is actually moving, and right now that map points heavily to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan Africa and a handful of deepwater growth basins.
The clearest takeaway from Saipem’s current portfolio is concentration. Qatar is becoming a multi-package compression franchise. Saudi Arabia keeps feeding the offshore LTA model. Angola is back in force through Kaminho. Guyana is still stacking subsea packages. Azerbaijan has reloaded around Shah Deniz Compression. This is not a diversified collection of small wins. It is a backlog built on giant offshore packages, repeat clients and technically demanding brownfield and deepwater execution.
The Qatar anchor
If one project best explains why Saipem remains central to the offshore gas buildout, it is QatarEnergy LNG’s North Field Production Sustainability program. Saipem’s COMP5 award, announced in December 2025, is worth about $3.1 billion and covers two offshore compression complexes. Each complex includes a compression platform, living quarters platform, flare platform and connecting bridges, with each weighing roughly 68,000 tonnes. That is not routine offshore work, that is industrial-scale marine EPCI.
COMP5 sits on top of earlier North Field compression work. Saipem had already secured COMP2 in October 2022 for about $4.5 billion, and followed with another major offshore EPC contract in September 2024, widely tied to the next compression package. In other words, Qatar is not a one-off award story for Saipem, it is a multi-cycle platform fabrication and installation campaign stretching into the end of the decade.
From a package-spend perspective, offshore compression developments of this type typically allocate around 35 to 45 percent to topsides and process compression systems, 20 to 30 percent to jackets, piles and structural steel, 15 to 20 percent to marine installation and heavy lift, and the balance to bridges, living quarters, flare systems, hook-up and commissioning. That profile explains why these contracts are so valuable to integrated EPCI players with fabrication, marine and offshore installation depth.
Saudi Arabia keeps paying
Saudi Arabia remains the other major pillar. The market tends to bundle “Marjan”, “Berri”, “Abu Safah”, “Safaniya” and “Jafurah” into one giant opportunity set, but the better way to read Saipem’s position is as a stream of call-off work under Aramco frameworks and LTAs.
At the end of December 2025, Saipem announced two offshore Saudi awards worth about $580 million in total. The first, CRPO 162, covers about 34 km of pipeline and related topside work at Berri and Abu Safah over 32 months. The second, CRPO 165, covers subsea interventions at Marjan plus a short onshore pipeline and tie-ins. Then in February 2026, Saipem added another Saudi offshore contract worth about $500 million for trunklines, subsea composite cables and associated platforms, widely linked by the market to Safaniya.
Jafurah is a different beast, more onshore gas infrastructure than classic offshore EPCI, but it belongs in the same strategic bucket. It underlines Saipem’s continued exposure to Saudi gas expansion, particularly where compression, pipelines and large balance-of-plant packages matter. The big point here is not whether each call-off is individually spectacular. It is that Saudi Arabia keeps replenishing backlog with medium-to-large tickets that keep vessels, yards and engineering teams loaded.
Deepwater is back on the list
Kaminho in Angola is one of the standout awards in Saipem’s current book. TotalEnergies awarded three contracts in May 2024 for the Cameia and Golfinho development, with total value around $3.7 billion. That is a serious deepwater package and a reminder that West Africa remains fertile ground for contractors that can handle SURF, FPSO-related offshore scopes and integrated marine execution.
Guyana is smaller in ticket size but strategically important. Saipem received authorization in September 2025 to proceed with the Hammerhead offshore project for ExxonMobil Guyana after earlier awards in April 2025 for work in the Middle East and Guyana worth about $720 million in total. Hammerhead reinforces Saipem’s role in the subsea factory that continues to expand offshore Guyana.
The sleeper value in Azerbaijan and Turkey
Two more projects deserve attention because they show backlog quality, not just backlog size. In Azerbaijan, Saipem and SOCAR affiliates won three new Shah Deniz Compression contracts in October 2025, with overall value around $700 million and Saipem’s share about $600 million. That keeps the group deeply embedded in one of the Caspian’s most technically important gas developments.
In Türkiye, Saipem’s FY 2025 presentation lists the Sakarya project among the major fourth-quarter awards at about $425 million. This is not one of the company’s largest contracts, but it is exactly the kind of pipeline and deepwater installation work that fits Saipem’s fleet and engineering model.
What it means
Saipem’s top projects tell a simple story. The company is making its money where barriers to entry are high, offshore compression, subsea infrastructure, deepwater tie-backs and large integrated marine EPCI. The regional mix is also telling. Qatar brings mega-ticket gas compression. Saudi Arabia brings repeat offshore call-offs. Angola and Guyana bring deepwater growth. Azerbaijan and Türkiye add technical gas infrastructure.
For suppliers and subcontractors, the opportunity set is broad. Typical demand across these projects will center on structural steel, piping, valves, compression skids, subsea umbilicals, power and control cables, living quarters systems, heavy lift, marine spreads, hook-up support and offshore commissioning. In short, this backlog is not just Saipem’s story. It is a very large addressable market for the wider offshore supply chain.
