Project and operations updateOil and gas
Saipem completes Neptun Deep offshore platform installation campaign
The campaign placed the jacket and approximately 9,000-tonne topside for the Romanian Black Sea gas development.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
- Sources
- 1 listed below
- Reading time
- 2 min
Saipem completed the offshore installation campaign for the production platform at the Neptun Deep gas development in Romania, the company reported on 23 July 2026. The milestone concerns placement of major offshore structures for a project jointly developed by operator OMV Petrom and Romgaz. It advances construction of the Black Sea development but should be distinguished from commissioning, first gas or a declaration that all contracted offshore work has been completed.
The campaign used the Saipem 7000 crane vessel. Its work included installation of a jacket approximately 135 metres tall and weighing more than 7,500 tonnes. The structure was fabricated at Saipem Offshore Construction's Arbatax yard in Sardinia. After transport to the Black Sea, it was lifted, turned upright, positioned and secured to the seabed with eight steel piles. Those operations established the supporting structure for the production platform.
The vessel then installed the platform topside, an approximately 9,000-tonne module fabricated at Saipem's Karimun yard in Indonesia. The use of fabrication locations in Italy and Indonesia, followed by offshore installation in Romania, shows the international manufacturing and marine logistics involved in the contract. The reported weights describe different components and should not be combined with the jacket height as though they were specifications for a single fabricated module.
Saipem's underlying contract dates to 2023 and covers engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the gas platform, together with subsea work at the Domino and Pelican fields. The company gives approximate water depths of 1,000 metres and 125 metres for those fields respectively. The wider scope also includes a 160-kilometre offshore gas pipeline with a diameter of 30 inches and a fibre-optic cable connecting the platform to the Romanian coast.
The company said the automated, remotely controlled platform will feed processed gas into that offshore pipeline once operating. Castorone is assigned to deepwater pipeline installation and Castoro 10 to nearshore installation. These remaining system interfaces explain why the platform-lift milestone is important without making it equivalent to production start. The release documents a specific completed installation campaign within a broader offshore development whose production system also depends on subsea facilities, export infrastructure and the subsequent steps needed to bring the equipment into service.
Sources
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