Fluor Awarded $469-Million Conversion Job

A Fluor subsidiary Tuesday received a $469-million contract to convert a never-completed Michigan nuclear power plant into a natural gas-burning facility. The award was the largest received by the Irvine engineering and construction company in the last two years.

The contract calls for the Power Sector of Fluor Daniel, Fluor’s construction subsidiary, to turn the Midland nuclear power plant, owned by Consumers Power Co., into a 1,300-megawatt, natural gas-fired co-generation facility.

The award was made by Midland Co-generation Venture, a joint venture group created specifically to turn the troubled nuclear plant into an electricity-producing facility. Construction on the plant was halted in 1984, with 85% of the work complete. It has never produced electricity.

Fluor said its Fluor Venture subsidiary will invest $25 million in the joint venture group and will own about 5% of the Midland facility.

A Fluor spokesman said the investment was unrelated to the contract approval process. “We entered into the investment because we feel it offers an excellent profit potential,” he said.

However, he declined to reveal the company’s projections for its share of the profit once the plant begins generating electricity in early 1990.

Other partners in the plant are CMS Midland Inc., a Consumers Power subsidiary, and Rofan Inc., a Dow Chemical subsidiary. Additional partners are expected to be announced shortly.

The Fluor spokesman said the company’s venture subsidiary was created specifically to invest in projects under construction by the company and offering particularly good profit potential. Fluor has already invested in a trash-burning plant it is building in Massachusetts.

Engineering of the Midland project will begin immediately, with preliminary site work expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 1988.