Saipem has signed new E&C Offshore contracts in Angola, Kazakhstan and North Sea, worth approximately $950 million.

In Angola, Saipem has been awarded an EPCI contract by CABGOC for the Congo River Crossing Pipeline Project, to be developed off the coasts of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The scope of work includes the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of 3 subsea pipelines, 20 and 22 inches in diameter, with a total length of 110 kilometres, in water depths of up to 117 metres, and of subsea spools, as well as the trenching and crossing works. The marine activities will be performed by the pipelayer Castoro 7 between the fourth quarter of 2012 and the fourth quarter of 2013.

In addition, Saipem has signed an EPCI contract in Angola for URF and gas export pipelines. The contract encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and pre-commissioning of in-field and export pipelines of approximately 100 kilometres in length, and of other related subsea equipment, in water 70 metres deep. The offshore activities will be carried out between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2015.

In Kazakhstan, Saipem, through its joint controlled company Ersai Caspian Contractor LLC in consortium with Keppel Kazakhstan LLP, has been awarded a contract by Teniz Burgylau LLP for the fabrication, outfitting and commissioning of a jack-up rig. The Keppel FELS B Class rig, designed for the Caspian Sea, will have the capability of drilling wells up to 20,000 feet and of operating in water depths of up to 260 feet. The final assembly and commissioning activities will take place at the Ersai Kuryk yard and the delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015. This will be the first jack-up built in Kazakhstan.

Finally, Saipem has signed two contracts for T&I activities encompassing the deployment of the Saipem 7000 and of the Castoro Sei pipelayer in the UK sector of the North Sea, in different timeframes between the second quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2015.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has announced the expansion of its industry software portfolio with the acquisition of VRcontext International S.A., Brussels, Belgium. The announcement was made today at the Digital Plant Congress in Würzburg, Germany. With its Walkinside product family, VRcontext is one of the leading developers of 3D visualization and training software for displaying complex engineering data in the shipbuilding and plant construction industries. This acquisition will help Siemens to further strengthen its established position in the industrial software market. The parties agreed not to disclosed details of the purchase price.

VRcontext International S.A. was founded in the year 2000 and is represented around the world by numerous strategic partners, dealer networks and a branch office in Houston, Texas, USA. Walkinside 3D visualization software is currently in use in plant operation, maintenance and servicing in more than 200 companies in over 30 countries. Whatever the system used, the software directly accesses all plant information to display the current status of a plant in visually appealing, realistic 3D graphics. VRcontext has specialized particularly in remote offshore installations for the oil and gas industry. With Walkinside, the company has created a globally accepted standard for 3D visualization in the process industry. "The integration of the Walkinside 3D visualization and training software of our long-standing partner VRcontext into our industrial software portfolio will benefit our customers significantly. Using intelligent 3D models can make plant engineering and operation safer and more efficient in a great many sectors of industry," said Eckard Eberle, CEO of the Siemens Industrial Automation Systems Business Unit, to which VRcontext will be assigned.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has now acquired a number of software companies and, in so doing, has consolidated its leading position in the industrial software market. All the firms concerned are leading suppliers in their respective segment: namely, UGS (USA, 2007), Innotec (Germany, 2008), Elan Software Systems (France, 2009), Active Tecnologia em Sistemas de Automação (Brazil, 2011), Vistagy (USA, 2011), IBS AG (Germany, 2012) and Perfect Costing Solutions GmbH (Germany, 2012).

Technip was been awarded two contracts, worth a total value of about €50 million, for the front-end engineering design (FEED) services of two refineries in Kazakhstan.

These awards consist of the modernization of two out of the three existing refineries in the country:

• the first contract, for Pavlodar Oil Chemistry Refinery, is an upgrading project of the Pavlodar refinery, which is scheduled to be completed in the second semester of 2013,
• the second one, for Petrokazakhstan Oil Product, concerns the revamp of the Shymkent refinery, whose FEED documentation is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013.

The scope of both projects includes new and revamp process units as well as utilities and offsite facilities aiming to increase production capacity and conversion.

Technip’s operating center in Rome, Italy will execute both contracts.

Zurich, Switzerland, Sept.3, 2012 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth around $35 million to provide a turnkey electrical and automation solution for the 290 megawatt (MW) Yunus Emre thermal power plant near Eskişehir in northwestern Turkey, comprising two 145 MW units. The plant will comply with the latest European Union emission standards for coal-fired power plants.

The order was awarded by Vitkovice Power Engineering, the Czech-based engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project. The plant is owned by Adularya Energy, a member of Naksan Holding.

“ABB’s ability to provide an integrated electrical, control and instrumentation package combined with our project management experience will facilitate the efficient execution of the project,” said Franz-Josef Mengede, head of ABB’s Power Generation business, a part of the company’s Power Systems division. “We will deploy the latest technologies, including our Symphony Plus automation and control platform, to maximize plant efficiency and reliability while minimizing environmental impact.”

ABB’s turnkey solution includes design, engineering, installation and commissioning. It comprises the complete electrical balance of plant and power outlet, including the high voltage switchyard. Key product supplies include power and auxiliary transformers, generator circuit breakers, medium and low voltage switchgear, protection systems, 380 kV air insulated switchgear, and control and protection systems for the grid connection.