Subsea 7 SA

Vallourec has secured the entire carbon-steel line pipe and external coating scope for Petrobras's Sepia 2 offshore development in Brazil's Santos Basin, covering roughly 130 kilometers of rigid risers and flowlines. The contract, awarded by Subsea7, represents more than 15,000 tonnes of carbon-steel seamless line pipe designed for highly corrosive environments, with Vallourec also applying thermal insulation coating through one integrated offer. Vallourec shares rose around 6% on the announcement. The pipes will be manufactured at Vallourec's Jeceaba plant in Minas Gerais, while the thermal insulation coating will be applied at its Serra facility in Espírito Santo. Sepia 2 sits around 280 kilometers off the Brazilian coast in ultra-deep water, with 15 wells connected to a new floating production, storage and offloading vessel at depths of roughly 2,170 meters. No financial value was disclosed, but the order adds to recent offshore wins including Petrobras-linked projects at Atapu and Búzios, and follows a 2025 agreement with Petrobras that could generate up to $1 billion of revenue from offshore OCTG products and services between 2026 and 2029.

Subsea7 S.A. has announced a sizeable contract award from LLOG Exploration Company LLC, a subsidiary of Harbour Energy, for the Who Dat East development in the US Gulf of Mexico. The project, located in lease MC 509-1 at a water depth of approximately 1,300 metres, involves the fabrication, transportation, and installation of a 29-kilometre steel catenary riser and pipe-in-pipe to the Who Dat floating production system, along with the installation of umbilical and subsea controls. Project management and engineering will begin immediately at Subsea7's Houston, Texas office, with offshore activities expected to start in 2028. Subsea7 defines a sizeable contract as being between $50 million and $150 million.

Saipem has secured unconditional antitrust approval from Brazil's CADE for its proposed merger with Subsea7, while separately agreeing to sell its Saudi Arabian shallow-water drilling business to ADES Saudi Limited Company for $285 million. The merger, which will create a combined entity called Saipem7, faced objections from major oil companies over market concentration but was cleared without restrictions, though the decision may still be appealed. The asset sale includes a fleet of five jack-up rigs and is part of Saipem's strategy to focus on deepwater and harsh-environment drilling, with closing expected in the third quarter of 2026. A bareboat charter arrangement will allow Saipem to continue its Mexico operations using the Perro Negro 10 rig.

Saipem has started offshore operations for the GranMorgu project in Suriname, with the Normand Navigator construction vessel moored at Jules Sedney Harbour in Paramaribo. This marks the first phase of activity at Suriname's inaugural large-scale offshore oil development, located in Block 58 about 150 kilometers offshore. The project is managed by TotalEnergies with a 40% stake, alongside APA at 40% and Staatsolie at 20%, and production is scheduled to begin in 2028. Saipem's contract covers engineering, procurement, supply, construction, and installation of the subsea umbilicals, risers, and flowlines system, plus pre-commissioning and support during commissioning and start-up at water depths from 100 to 1,100 meters. The company has set up a logistics hub of 30,000 to 40,000 square meters at Jules Sedney Harbour and is using the DORDT marine support base in Paramaribo for heavy subsea structures. Separately, Brazil's antitrust authority CADE has approved without restrictions the proposed merger between Saipem and Subsea7, though the decision can be appealed and major oil companies including ExxonMobil, Petrobras, and TotalEnergies have opposed the merger. Additionally, Saipem secured a new contract in Angola from Azule Energy Exploration and Azule Energy Angola, subsidiaries of an Eni and bp joint venture, valued at 1 billion dollars for transportation and installation services for the Greater PAJ ultra-deepwater project.

Third Avenue Value Fund disclosed in its first-quarter 2026 investor letter that Valaris Limited became the subject of a takeover offer from larger industry peer Transocean. The fund noted that the premium price offered to Valaris shareholders reflects a building cyclical recovery in demand for offshore energy services, Valaris' hard-to-replicate fleet of high-quality floating drilling rigs, and its well-capitalized balance sheet, which would allow indebted Transocean to reduce its own financial leverage through an all-stock merger. Valaris was among the largest contributors to fund performance during the quarter, with most of the gains occurring before the onset of military action in Iran on February 28. The fund's other offshore energy services holdings, Tidewater and Subsea 7, also performed strongly, with Subsea 7 undergoing an industry-consolidating acquisition announced in July 2025.