THE appeal of the North Sea has been underlined afresh in trading updates from two firms with a significant presence in the area.
Wood Group, the Scottish oil services giant, said a strong performance in UK waters has helped put the company on track to achieve results in line with expectations this year.
The Aberdeen-based firm has been capitalising on the efforts of oil and gas firms to increase production in the North Sea to meet strong global demand.
The company's chairman, Allister Langlands, told the general meeting in Aberdeen that the Wood Group PSN arm, which helps the firm boost output from existing assets, has recently won important extensions to major contracts with Total and CNR.
The engineering arm, which works on new assets, is recording strong activity in areas such as subsea infrastructure development in the UK.
The results of the latest industry survey by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, published on Monday, showed a majority of firms expect to increase activity in UK waters and to boost investment in developing new assets this year.
Meanwhile, Enquest, which describes itself as the largest UK independent producer in the UK North Sea, highlighted its appetite for more acquisitions in the area.
"We continue to look at opportunities to acquire assets in the UK, as well as other regions, such as in the Norwegian North Sea, South East Asia and North Africa, where our expertise and capabilities can be applied to maturing assets and development opportunities," said the company.
Directors are happy a strategy that involves trying to increase output from existing assets that may be too small to interest the giants and bringing undeveloped discoveries onstream is bearing fruit.
In an Interim Management Statement, chief executive Amjad Bseisu said Enquest still expects to finalise the Field Development Plan for the Kraken heavy oil find east of Shetland in the second half of this year.
A recent appraisal well produced encouraging results.
Enquest describes the Kraken discovery, originally made in the 1980s, as one of the biggest current development projects in the UK North Sea.
It hopes to achieve first oil in 2016.
Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy bought into the field through the acquisition of North Sea-focused Nautical Petroleum for £414m in 2012.
Enquest said the Alma/Galia development project in the central North Sea remains on track for the production of first oil in Q4 2013.
The company confirmed it expects total production to average between 22,000 and 27,000 barrels oil equivalent daily for the full year.
Mr Bseisu noted Enquest generates lots of cash from its production.
Output fell in the first quarter to 20,494 boed from 20,976 boed in the same period last year, partly due to the temporary shut down of the Brent pipeline system.
Wood Group said its engineering and maintenance arms are also performing well in overseas markets like North America and Asia Pacific. The gas turbine services arm is currently behind plan. But Wood Group said: "This is anticipated to be recovered over the course of the year."
Some 18 million votes or 8% of the total 222 million votes cast at Wood's general meeting opposed the re-election of chairman Allister Langlands as a director. A further 46 million were withheld.
Formerly chief executive of the group, Mr Langlands succeeded Sir Ian Wood as chairman following his retiral in November.
In Wood Group's 2012 annual report, senior independent director Ian Marchant noted the corporate governance recommendation that chief executives should not normally go on to be chairman of the same company.
He said the board unanimously decided Mr Langlands was the right man to be chairman and representatives of major shareholders had agreed.
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