The contract is worth around £30m to Costain, and demonstrates the successful progress made in the development of Costain’s offering in complex oil and gas services.

The engineering, procurement and construction deal will see the firm upgrade of Perenco’s refrigeration system to ensure it complies with new environmental legislation coming into force on 1 January 2015.

Andrew Wyllie, Chief Executive of Costain, said:”We continue to expand our capabilities in complex design and procurement in the oil and gas sector.

“Building on the innovative FEED solutions already provided, we now look forward to delivering the implementation phase of this investment in energy provision for the UK.”

Perenco is the world’s largest privately owned oil and gas company and currently produces around 375,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

In November 2012 it bought BP’s Southern North Sea gas assets.

These included the Dimlington terminal near Easington where gas is treated prior to export to the National Transmission System.

The terminal currently uses Freon-based refrigeration to achieve the required gas dew point.

However environmental legislation that bans the use of ozone depleting substances such as Freon comes into force on 1 January 2015, making modifications to the terminal necessary.