The Subsea7/Saipem tie up appears to currently be under investigation by US antitrust authorities, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The two offshore engineering companies announced their merger in February 2025. There is no public record of an HSR filing or second request that this news service was able to uncover.

However, interested third parties recently received Civil Investigative Demands (CID) from a US merger controller about the deal, which the source said was a strong indication a second request had been issued.

A “second request” from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or Department of Justice (DOJ) indicates an in-depth investigation of a transaction and comes after the initial 30-day waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The DOJ traditionally investigates oilfield services deals, such as ChampionX/Schlumberger, Baker Hughes/Halliburton and others.

CIDs, which compel third parties to produce information to the agency that could help with their investigation, are almost always sent by the US antitrust agencies as part of a second request investigation, an independent attorney with experience at the DOJ confirmed.

The attorney said that while it is possible for a CID to be sent before a second request is issued, it is unlikely unless the deal was recently filed and a second request was expected.

Given that this deal was announced in February, the existence of CIDs means “it’s probably in second request,” the attorney said.

Subsea7 and Saipem handle large-scale oil, gas, and energy infrastructure projects for the oil and gas supermajors including BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies. They operate globally, in the Gulf of Mexico, Asia Pacific, the North Sea, Mediterranean, offshore Africa, Middle East, and South America.

Subsea7 had USD 514m in revenues from the US in FY 2024, representing 7.5% of that year’s USD 6.8bn in sales. Saipem saw sales of USD 1.8bn from the Americas for the same year, or nearly 11% of its annual total.

The transaction has already run into opposition in South America, where the oil majors told the Brazilian merger watchdog CADE that the merged entity would end up with too high a market share in SURF operations – Subsea Umbilicals, Risers, and Flowlines that connect subsea wells to surface facilities.

This news service reported yesterday that third parties are also telling the European Commission (EC) that the merger would result in a reduction of competition, particularly in high spec vessels. The deal is at the prenotification stage in the EC, after the companies were informed that notification at EC level is required.

Representatives for the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on this article.  Subsea7 and Saipem did not reply to a request for comment.