LONDON: Global technology colossus Apple on Wednesday announced plans to create a London headquarters in the iconic and long-abandoned Battersea Power Station on the banks of the River Thames.
“We are looking forward to opening Apple’s new London campus at The Battersea Power Station in 2021,” the company said.
Around 1,400 staff from eight existing offices in London will relocate to the renovated landmark, whose distinctive chimneys have towered over the central neighborhood of Battersea since the 1930s.
The former power station lay derelict since it stopped generating electricity in 1983, but is undergoing a £9 billion ($11.7 billion, 10.4 billion euros) makeover to turn the 42-acre (170,000 square meter) space into offices, apartments, shops and leisure facilities.
The new “Apple complex” will take over 40 percent of the office space.
The firm called it “a great opportunity to have our entire team working and collaborating in one location while supporting the renovation of a neighborhood rich with history.”
Finance Minister Philip Hammond said the announcement “further strengthens London’s position as a global technology hub, and demonstrates how the UK is at the forefront of the next steps in the tech-revolution.
The power station is one of the world’s largest brick structures, and is noted for its Art Deco interior fittings.
It has frequently popped up in popular culture, featuring in The Beatles film “Help!” and on the cover on Pink Floyd’s 1977 album “Animals.”
Apple to make famous Battersea Power Station its London HQ
Apple to make famous Battersea Power Station its London HQ
Italy’s Saipem wins $3.1bn offshore contract for Qatar’s North Field project
RIYADH: Italy’s Saipem has secured an offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract worth about $3.1 billion for its share of a major gas project in Qatar.
The contract, awarded by QatarEnergy LNG, covers the COMP5 package of the North Field Production Sustainability Offshore Compression Complexes project. The total value of the award is approximately $4 billion, Saipem said in a statement.
The award forms part of QatarEnergy LNG’s strategy to maintain and increase production capacity at the North Field, the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field, located off the northeastern coast of Qatar.
The project scope includes the “engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of two compression complexes, each including a compression platform, a living quarter platform, a flare platform supporting the gas combustion system, and the related interconnecting bridges.”
Each complex will have a total weight of about 68,000 tonnes.
The contract has a total duration of approximately 5 years. Saipem said offshore installation operations will be carried out by its De He construction vessel in 2029 and 2030.
The new contract follows the EPCI COMP2 and COMP3 packages, which were awarded to Saipem in October 2022 and September 2024, respectively, and are currently under execution.
“The award of the COMP5 package consolidates Saipem’s collaboration with QatarEnergy LNG and reinforces the company’s presence in Qatar as a partner for the execution of complex large-scale projects,” the company said.
QatarEnergy CEO Saad Al-Kaabi said last month that the broader North Field expansion project remains on track to produce its first liquefied natural gas in the second half of 2026, Reuters reported.
The wider North Field project involves the construction of six gas trains to cool natural gas into liquefied natural gas for export by ship.
Saipem, which is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, operates as a “One Company” organized into several business lines, including asset-based services, drilling, energy carriers, offshore wind, and sustainable infrastructures.
The company owns five fabrication yards, along with a fleet of 17 construction vessels and 12 drilling rigs.
