EU Set to Restart Scrutiny of Subsea 7-Saipem Combination

The European Commission will likely comment within the next 24 hours on a reopening of its antitrust probe of the merger between Norway's Subsea 7 and Italy's Saipem, Subsea 7 CEO Stuart Fitzgerald said on Wednesday.

The probe had been halted by the EU while the parties provided additional information.

The deal announced in February last year would create a leading global player in offshore energy services, from drilling and engineering to laying subsea infrastructure for offshore oil and gas projects. Both companies operate a fleet of vessels for these services.

"We've provided the data (and) now and we expect a restart imminently," Fitzgerald told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo.

"The EU will come out with a timeline, and you can expect that they'll come out probably within the next 24 hours. So we'll let them state the timeline, but it's imminent," he said.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, said in July the deal may have a significant impact on competition in some offshore engineering and construction service markets.

(Reuters - Reporting by Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Louise Rasmussen)