Customers of Subsea7 and Saipem are urging the European Commission (EC) to prohibit their merger, according to a source close to the matter.

Companies that use the offshore engineering and construction companies’ products and services have met with the EC case team to present their concerns and are responding to requests for information, the source said.

The deal has already run into trouble 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.

Customers are telling the EC that many of the concerns raised in Brazil’s review of the transaction are also relevant in the EU, the source said, because both regions require “high spec” vessels.

“In Brazil, it’s deep sea; in Europe, you have harsh weather conditions. Only high spec vessels can be used for those kinds of projects,” the source said.

A “high‑spec” vessel is an offshore ship with advanced capabilities, such as powerful dynamic positioning, heavy‑lift or deepwater installation systems, and robust seakeeping designed to operate safely and efficiently in harsh environments and complex offshore conditions.

“You need to have very stable vessels, the pipe laying depends on them in harsh weather conditions”, the source said.

“And only a few actors are able to do that,” he said. “Actually, you’ve got three — and the merging parties are two of them.”

He affirmed the third is TechnipFMC, a French-American UK-domiciled oil and gas company.

Decommissioning and carbon capture are also services the companies are discussing with the EC, the source added.

Decommissioning refers to the retirement of offshore infrastructure at the end of a field’s life, while carbon capture involves collecting CO₂ from industrial or energy‑related sources and transporting it, often via subsea systems, for secure storage.

Requests for information from the EC have asked for bidding data for SURF, decommissioning and carbon capture, the source specified.

The UK CMA cleared the merger in November, finding that for SURF projects in the North Sea — Subsea7’s largest region — Saipem only competed on a limited number of tenders in the last three years. For standalone trunkline projects, where Saipem is active, the CMA said Subsea7 had only unsuccessfully bid for a small number of projects.

Subsea7, Saipem and TechnipFMC handle large-scale oil, gas, and energy infrastructure projects for the oil and gas supermajors including BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies.

The EC declined to comment on this article. Subsea7 and Saipem did not reply to a request for comment.