A Fluor Corp. unit has signed a...

A Fluor Corp. unit has signed a contract worth nearly $1 million with a Chinese company to begin first-stage engineering and planning for a 620-mile natural gas pipeline to serve towns, local industries and power plants on Hainan Island and the southern province of Guangdong.

The Irvine-based company’s Fluor Daniel Ltd. will work with the Gas Utilization Corp. of China National Offshore Oil Corp. on the first phase of a project that is expected to take four years and $1 billion to complete. David Tappan, Fluor’s chief executive, has said he hopes work on the contract, signed last Tuesday, will result in further contracts on the pipeline.