April 4 (Bloomberg) -- Petrofac Ltd., the U.K. oil and gas services provider with projects in the Middle East, the North Sea and Kazakhstan, won a $477 million contract from Petro- Canada to build a natural-gas treatment plant in Syria.

The plant will be for Petro-Canada's Ebla project, a production-sharing contract to develop and produce from the Ash Shaer and Cherrife fields, Petrofac said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. First gas is scheduled for delivery in 2010.

Syria is seeking to increase gas production to meet rising electricity demand as oil output declines. The government expects crude production to fall to 360,000 barrels a day this year, from 380,000 barrels a day in 2007 and a peak of 600,000 barrels a day in 1996. Petrofac won a 291 million-euro ($456 million) contract last month to build a gas-processing plant at Syria's Hayan Block.

The contract is a ``significant award'' for Petrofac, said Maroun Semaan, the company's head of engineering and construction Chief Executive, in today's statement. Together with the previous contract it ``provides us with almost $1 billion of work'' in Syria, he said.

The initial contract is for two years and will include the construction of all facilities and infrastructure for the gas plant, commissioning and start-up assistance, pipelines, flowlines and well sites.

The plant will be designed to produce 88 million standard cubic feet of sales gas a day and 150 tons a day of liquid petroleum gas, the company said. The gas and associated condensate from the field will be fed into the Syrian pipeline grid and LPG will be transported via tankers.

Petrofac also agreed to buy a 10 percent interest in the Ebla production-sharing contract, subject to approval from the Syrian government.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 4, 2008 03:20 EDT