17 July 2019
Italy-headquartered oil services group Saipem announced on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Plambeck Emirates for the design and construction of a 500 megawatt (MW) floating offshore wind farm in Saudi Arabia.

The company said in a press statement that it would sign a contract to carry out engineering, design, construction and installation of the wind farm after the finalisation of the financial agreements at the end of planning phase of the project.

The statement quoted Francesco Balestrino, Renewables and Green Tech Product Manager of Saipem's Xsight division as saying that the use of the company's cost-efficient Hexafloat technology for the project would support the development of a wind market in Saudi Arabia

"Initiating new market in Saudi Arabia is an important opportunity to be seized and we are ready with Plambeck for this new challenge," he said.

Norbert Plambeck, shareholder of Plambeck Emirates said in the statement that the development of floating offshore wind farm project is part of "the new 5 GW [Gigawatt] Wind Market concept, which has been proposed to Saudi Arabia."

The press statement said Plambeck Saudi would start working on the various phases of the project in the coming weeks.

(Writing by Madhura Deulgaonkar; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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