Itron Inc., the big Liberty Lake-based maker of energy-management equipment and systems, has announced two new international projects to install utility metering networks in Australia and Azerbaijan.

One of those projects, in the Eurasian country of the Republic of Azerbaijan, will provide 400,000 gas smart-payment meters to SOCAR Azeri Gas Production Union, a division of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, an Itron release says.

The production union division of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan transmits, distributes, and markets natural gas throughout that country.

The deployment of Itron's gas payment meters already is under way in Azerbaijan, and follows a 2010 installation in the country's capital city of Baku, where Itron put in 250,000 smart-payment meters.

The installation of the 400,000 new payment meters is anticipated to be complete in February 2013. Alison Mallahan, a spokeswoman with Itron, declines to disclose the value of that contract.

Natural gas consumers in Azerbaijan also will be able to recharge their payment cards at several locations throughout the country, including at self-service terminals. The simple access to the smart-meter systems is expected to enable consumers to better manage their natural gas consumption, Itron says.

Itron also recently announced a new project in the Australian city of Port Douglas, Queensland, to deploy a water-metering system for the Cairns Regional Council, the local government that manages the area's water supply.

The coastal town of Port Douglas, located about an hour's drive north of Cairns, is a popular tourist destination, and the area's water-usage rates are high, Itron says. The six-month project recently began and follows a project last year that was to install a similar system in the Australian city of Kalgoorlie, it says.

When completed later this year, the networked water-management system at Cairns will enable the Cairns Regional Council to track consumption and optimize water supply according to demand.

The water-metering project in Port Douglas is part of a broader effort by the Australian Commonwealth Government to effectively manage and conserve the country's water supply.

Mallahan declines to disclose the value of the project contract.

Itron recently reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $54.6 million, or $1.35 a diluted share, down sharply from net income of $26.6 million, or 65 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. For all of 2011, the company reported a net loss of $510.2 million, or $12.56 a share, compared with net income of $104.8 million, or $2.56 a share, in 2010.

Itron President and CEO LeRoy Nosbaum said in a press release that the company's fourth-quarter results produced record revenue and cash flow, but its profitability was impacted by restructuring charges and sizable goodwill impairment charges, among other factors.