The chief executive of Wood Group has said Scotland's biggest oil services firm could succeed whatever the outcome of next year's referendum on Scottish independence.

He also sees no obvious reason why the company should not retain its headquarters in Aberdeen.

Noting that a number of international companies had chosen to move their headquarters for tax reasons, Bob Keiller said: "We don't feel that's necessarily the right reason for doing anything like that."

Five months after taking charge of a company with operations around the world, Mr Keiller said Wood Group expected to have a significant presence in the North Sea for years to come.

Asked if he had any concerns about the prospect of Scotland becoming independent following the referendum scheduled for next September, Mr Keiller said the vote was a matter for the electorate.

He added: "There's nothing I've heard that would worry me if Scotland stayed part of the UK and there's nothing that worries me, in the sense of the company's ability to be successful, if the electorate decide Scotland should no longer be part of the UK.

"It's not that I'm not concerned about it, it's just that I think we can be successful whatever the outcome is."

Mr Keiller noted that Wood Group is a global business with more employees outside the UK than inside the country.

It has a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

However, he added: "Is there any reason why the business could not continue to be headquartered in Aberdeen? I don't think there's any obvious reason there."

The historic home of Wood Group, Aberdeen offers a good quality of life and is relatively accessible.

"You are one flight away from any of the major European transport hubs," said Mr Keiller, adding: "With modern technology location probably becomes less of an issue than it was."

Regarding Wood Group's future in the North Sea, Mr Keiller said: "We're definitely into the second half of the North Sea but the first half started in the 1960s.

"I can still see that there's many, many years of high levels of activity around about the UK's oil and gas industry and I see Wood Group continuing to play a significant part in that."