Fluor Daniel Wins $150-Million North Slope Job : Petroleum: The Irvine firm will expand Arco’s natural-gas handling facility in Alaska.

IRVINE —  Fluor Daniel Inc., the construction and engineering arm of Fluor Corp., has won a $150-million contract to expand Atlantic Richfield Co.’s natural gas-handling project on Alaska’s North Slope.

The contract is part of a $1.5-billion expansion of the facility, considered critical to the future of the Prudhoe Bay oil field--the largest in North America.

As oil production declines, the amount of natural gas produced with each barrel of oil increases. Most of the gas will be compressed and re-injected into the oil reservoir underground to force additional oil into the wells.

Arco said this can increase daily oil production by nearly 6%, or 100,000 barrels per day, starting in 1995. Currently, North Slope oil production averages 1.8 million barrels per day.

The project, known as GHX-2, will use prefabricated modules to expand the gas-handling capability of Arco’s existing facilities by 44%, from the current 5.2 billion cubic feet per day to 7.5 billion cubic feet. It is jointly funded by British Petroleum, which is putting up 50% of the money; Arco, 22%; Exxon Corp., 22%, and other investors, 6%.

Joan L. Howard, a Fluor spokeswoman, said the contract is expected to be signed within the next two weeks.

Fluor Daniel will fabricate 20 giant modules--self-contained gas compressors and pumping units--at the Port of Iberia in New Iberia, La., starting next April. The modules will be barged to Alaska between 1993 and 1994. Some of the modules will stand as high as a six-story building and weigh between 20 and 2,500 tons.

About 2,000 people will be hired to work on the project, said Arco’s chairman and chief executive, Lodwrick M. Cook. Most of the workers will come from southern Louisiana, he added.

Arco and Fluor will bring in about 150 engineers and staff people to work on the project.

In landing the contract, Fluor beat two major competitors--Brown & Root Braun of Houston and Ebasco Constructors Inc. of Santa Ana.

The Prudhoe Bay field is jointly owned by British Petroleum Co. PLC, Arco, Exxon Corp., Mobil Corp., Phillips Petroleum Co. and Chevron Corp. It is operated by BP Exploration (Alaska) and Arco Alaska Inc.