The National Oil Corporation of Libya (NOC) has awarded a Consultancy Service Contract to Saipem for the development of the Benghazi Oil Technical Centre (BOTC). The specialised Technical Centre is to be established in the Mreisa Free Zone, 25 kilometres from Benghazi, and designed with world-class facilities and technologies to serve the Libyan oil and gas market and other industries.

Saipem will initially provide the feasibility study, FEED & bid services for 15 months. In the later stages, Saipem will look after project management services and owner’s engineer services over the remaining 40 months of the contract.

During the signing ceremony, the Chairman of the NOC Board, Mustafa Sanalla, said: “To get a significant cost savings, reduced production losses and time savings by performing maintenance work locally through the investing companies, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) is adopting the establishment of a specialized technical centre in the city of Benghazi, with a high level of equipment and infrastructure; the centre will be divided into suitable areas for investment by international companies or specialized manufacturers. By completing the signing of the consulting services contract with the Italian company Saipem, we will have started the implementation work of the project, through which we are looking forward to extending the cooperation bridge with Saipem to implement other projects.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Saipem, Stefano Cao, said: “North Africa remains a strategic area of huge potential developments in both industrial and energy sectors. This project consolidates our relationship with NOC and gives us the opportunity to support our client in creating an important centre for the optimal utilization of the national resources.”