Saipem forecasts orders for the oil and gas services industry to begin growing in 2013 after staying mostly static this year.
The company told analysts in July that the European economic crisis had weighed on gas demand there, delaying projects in Russia and Algeria in which Saipem was involved.
Reiterating this, chief executive Pietro Franco Tali said a lot of big projects, which had been delayed in 2012, may resume next year.
"2013 should be a year when the contractor industry should see some significant backlog addition, some of the big projects which have been postponed from 2012 should come to fruition," Tali said.