The former Prescon company has just won a $US3 million contract with the Thai state oil and gas company PTT for the supplying and installing of compressors, heat exchangers and associated equipment for 17 CNG refuelling stations in that populous Asian nation.

Intermech managing director Hugh Fulton says the Thai work nicely complements the almost $US20 million contract that his company picked up with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) subsidiary IFCO for 56 CNG stations a few months earlier.

"That contract was the biggest by far that we have yet won and we have almost doubled the number of personnel, taking on an extra 20 staff or so, to cope with the increased workload that contract has created."

The second shipment of units is due to leave for the Gulf this month and Fulton says they are destined for the sometimes smog-laden capital of Tehran.

"I have been to Iran several times and find it a fascinating country; it has 15 percent of the world's known gas reserves, enough to last it for the next 200 years or so.

"However, Iran has limited refining capacity for internal use and has a $US2 billion a year bill for imported fuel, so obviously they are looking to utilise more of their gas for themselves.

"This is where we have been successful in winning work, utilising and further developing the expertise we originally gained during the Think Big era.

"Lots of New Zealanders think CNG is now dead, along with Think Big promoter the late Sir Robert Muldoon, but it's definitely not overseas, in Middle Eastern and Asian countries which are still learning to fully utilise their hydrocarbon reserves."

Intermech is bidding for some of the second-stage Iranian CNG program and is also helping the Iranians establish a factory to which CNG packages can be shipped and assembled. The Iranian government wants a minimum of 35% local content in its CNG schemes.

He and brother Brian Fulton, company sales and marketing director, hope to regularly win more overseas work once the year-long, first-stage Iranian contract finishes about the end of the year, so the company can grow even further.

Intermech is also bidding for a $US15 million, 40-unit CNG package in India.