Saipem, an Eni Company, has been awarded the contract for the extraction of the fuel oil cargo from the wreck of the“Prestige”, the oil tanker sunk offshore Galicia, Spain, to a depth of over 3800m, on 19th November 2002.



The contract, of a total amount of approximately 60 million Euro, has been awarded by the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which is acting on behalf of the Spanish Administration. Neither Repsol YPF nor Saipem are in any way connected to the accident; recovery costs will be borne by the Spanish Administration.



Saipem, through its wholly owned subsidiary Sonsub, has specifically designed and developed for the project an extraction and recovery system composed of several hot tap valve system to be installed on the wreck to allow the trapped fuel oil flowing into 25m long aluminium shuttles tanks, each with a loading capacity of 300m3. Once surfaced, the tanks will be connected to an FPSO.



This contract is the continuation of a pilot extraction test successfully completed last year by Saipem. The work is expected to be completed within the last quarter of 2004.