Italy’s Saipem raises 2024 forecast thanks to Saudi, Qatari projects

Italian energy company Saipem raised its full-year forecast on Thursday and confirmed its intention to resume dividend payments next year after beating expectations in its third-quarter results.

According to Reuters, Saipem reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation of 340 million euros ($366 million) in the July-September quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of 323 million euros ($349 million), according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.

Projects awarded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia helped push new contracts to 6.4 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in the third quarter of this year.

Saipem now expects its revenues for this year to exceed 14 billion euros ($15.12 billion), up from previous estimates of between 12.7 billion euros ($13.7 billion) and 13.3 billion euros ($14.36 billion).

EBITDA for 2024 is expected to exceed €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), with capital expenditure below €400 million ($432.1 million).

In September, Saipem won a contract worth close to $2 billion to develop the Marjan offshore oil field in Saudi Arabia.

It has also secured other offshore development contracts with Saudi Aramco worth a total of around $1 billion, as well as a $4 billion offshore field contract with Qatar Energy, one of the world’s largest LNG suppliers.