TWO south-east Asian companies have won the construction and engineering contracts at Perdaman's $3.5 billion urea project in Collie, WA.

A spokesman for Perdaman would not disclose how much the contracts were worth but said it was "for the bulk of the $3.5 billion project" .

The project is set to create about 1500 local jobs during the three-year construction phase, and 200 permanent jobs.

Korean company Samsung Engineering will act as the lead contractor, with Indonesian company P.T Inti Karya Persada Tehnik the secondary contractor.

The contract comprises Phase 1 work up to financial close for the project during the first quarter of 2010, and for Phase 2 construction work scheduled to start later in 2010.

With the capacity to produce 2 million tonnes of urea per annum, primarily for export, the plant will generate in excess of $850 million per annum in export earnings for WA .

The works include the gasification island, which is central to the conversion of coal to hydrogen rich gas, the product island, which converts gas to urea, and the various utilities.

Perdaman’s Chairman and Managing Director Vikas Rambal said the company had undertaken an exhaustive tender process that commenced in late 2008.

“We selected Samsung and IKPT because they demonstrated the experience, technical ability and financial strength to successfully complete a project of the size and omplexity of the Collie Urea Project to within 2013 timeframe.”