WOOD Group has highlighted the boom in activity in the North Sea, which has put the oil services giant on course to record another year of bumper profits.
Aberdeen-based Wood Group said it was confident of meeting expectations for this year after cashing in on the recent surge in investment in UK waters.
In an interim management statement, Wood Group said its engineeing division, which works on new projects, was busy in the North Sea, where giants are investing in a range of bumper projects. Wood Group is working on BP's Quad204 project on the Schiehallion field west of Shetland.
The trading update was the last the company is expected to issue under the chairmanship of Sir Ian Wood, who developed the company out of the family-owned fishing business. Sir Ian will retire from the board on November 1 when Allister Langlands will succeed him as chairman. Bob Keiller will succeed Mr Langlands as chief executive.
"In sub-sea and pipelines, we are particularly active in the North Sea and the North West shelf of Australia," said Wood Group.
The Wood Group PSN business, which works on existing assets, is benefiting from continued high levels of spending by oil and gas companies as they try to maximise production from fields they operate.
The statement provides further evidence of the buoyant state of the market in the North Sea, where big-spending oil and gas firms are generating lots of work for services firms.
Research by Oil & Gas UK shows confidence levels reached a fresh record high in the North Sea in the second quarter as oil and gas firms ramped up activity to meet strong demand.
Wood Group has also been cashing in on strong oil and gas activity in North America, Africa and the Caspian. While it expects to lose $15m to $20m this year on a complex contract in Oman, directors believe this will be profitable eventually. The company concluded: "Conditions in energy markets remain favourable."
The consensus analysts' forecast is for Wood to increase earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to $509m (£314m) this year from $396m in 2011.
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