The contract is the first for the Sino-Thai joint venture, which was established last November.

Clough said the contract, which includes the fabrication of preassembled modules, was worth about $A26 million in sales contribution to the group. Clough too inject an initial $A1 million to cover project start-up costs.

More than 100 modules will be produced in STP&I’s facility in the Sattahip port area over an 18-month period. The contract with Alcan is understood to be performance-based.

Clough chief executive officer David Singleton said the project was part of a “regionalisation” strategy to service the Australian and Asian markets by establishing checkpoint hubs in Thailand, India and Indonesia.

“This project and the Sattahip facility are key elements of our Thai execution capability as we seek to obtain cost effective program execution centres around our Asian operations,” he said.

Clough has already built and installed 23 wellhead platforms and over a 100km of subsea pipelines in the region, giving the group crucial vantage ground as it vies for $1 billion of planned investment in Thai oil and gas over the next five years.

Last month, Clough reported a net loss of $42 million for the six months to December 31 2004, including provisions totalling $45.3 million in connection with the BassGas contract.

Orders won during the period totalled $827 million, generating work in hand as at December 31 2004 of $925 million. The resulting work in hand was up 81% from $510.9 million for the previous corresponding period and more than double the $407.6 million figure at June 30 2004.

The loss principally reflects a $19.3 million provision for the bond called by Origin in November 2004, plus provisions of $20 million.