Fluor Wins $1-Billion Contract at Persian Gulf Gas Complex

Fluor Corp., the biggest publicly traded U.S. construction and engineering company, won a $1-billion contract to expand gas processing facilities in the Persian Gulf, benefiting from a regional construction boom.

The work is for the Habshan Gas Complex in the United Arab Emirates and will be finished in the middle of 2008, said Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd., or Gasco, as it’s also known. The company, majority owned by the Abu Dhabi government, didn’t give any more details.

Fluor and other international oil services companies are competing for business in the Persian Gulf region, where oil producers including Saudi Arabia are using record revenue from oil sales to boost oil and gas production capacity, at a cost of more than $50 billion.

“Foreign companies are reaping the benefit as countries in the region earn record oil revenue and invest in expanding their oil and gas capacity,” said Kamel Harami, former president of Kuwait’s Q8 brand of gas stations in Europe and Thailand.

Gasco, which is responsible for processing Abu Dhabi’s onshore natural gas reserves, is spending about $4 billion on projects to expand facilities during the next three years, including Habshan. Abu Dhabi, with a population of 1.6 million, is the world’s fourth-largest holder of oil reserves.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest shipbuilder, last week won a $1.2-billion order to expand an oil export facility in Kuwait. The work, which includes work for Fluor, is the biggest contract that Kuwait Oil Co. has awarded.

Fluor Corp. in August reported a second-quarter net loss after recording $65 million in costs related to a lawsuit. The company is based in Aliso Viejo but plans to move its headquarters to Texas next year.