Fluor Corp

On a shelf behind George Fischer's desk is a recent Christmas card from a Saudi Arabian friend: It shows Santa Claus wearing a gas mask. Fischer has friends all over the world, most with less macabre senses of humor. His contacts come from 40 years of gathering information for a newsletter about overseas work contracts. Now job-seekers from seemingly everywhere want to be Fischer's friend.

Fluor Corp.'s Fluor Global Services unit received a contract to continue providing services to Baltimore Gas & Electric's Lusby, Md., nuclear generating station. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Fluor Corp., a worldwide engineering and construction firm based in Aliso Viejo, said it agreed to provide general maintenance support services for Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which the company has serviced since 1995.

A Fluor Corp. unit has received a $700-million contract to help build a copper concentrator in the remote Catamarca province of Argentina. The unit, Fluor Daniel Inc., will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the 80,000-tons-per-day concentrator. The company said the work also includes a concentrate slurry pipeline, access roads, power supply, and port facilities. The contract was awarded by Minera Alumbrera Ltd. Fluor Corp.

Fluor Corp., the biggest publicly traded U.S. construction and engineering company, said it would take a $60-million charge after losing a lawsuit. A jury in federal court in New York awarded $28.8 million in damages to the developer of a luxury resort hotel in the Cayman Islands that had been sued by Fluor Daniel Caribbean, a Fluor Corp. subsidiary, in a contract dispute. Aliso Viejo-based Fluor plans to take the charge to its second-quarter earnings. It also said it would appeal the verdict.

Fluor Corp. said it won a $102-million order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help repair Iraq's electricity network. The project includes fixing or replacing power generation and transmission systems, the Aliso Viejo company said. Shares of Fluor rose $1.45 to $39.50 on the NYSE.

Engineering-construction giant Fluor Corp. said Thursday that it has won a $250-million contract to manage construction of a gasoline additive plant for National Methanol Co. in Saudi Arabia. Fluor Daniel, Fluor Corp.'s principal subsidiary, will provide engineering and procurement from its Houston office, while construction management services will be run from its office in Al Khubar, Saudi Arabia. The plant is scheduled to be completed in late 1993.