WOOD Group and a Middle East engineering partner have won a contract worth up to $20 million (£13m) to help Royal Dutch Shell develop a giant oil field in Iraq.

A joint venture between the Scottish oil services giant and Consolidated Contractors Company will help commission the first phase of the Majnoon field near Basra, in Southern Iraq.

The one-year contract will involve the joint venture commissioning and testing new production facilities on the field, reckoned to be one of the biggest in the world.

The Iraqi government estimates Majnoon holds about 38 billion barrels of oil.

Shell Iraq, Petronas and the Iraqi Ministry of Oil are partners in the field.

David Buchan, Middle East director of the Wood Group PSN unit, said: "This is a significant contract for WGCCC and marks our continued expansion across the Middle East. We are currently deploying up to 200 new personnel to service the contract."

The deal is the second that Wood Group PSN has won in Iraq in the last six months.

Last November, the firm won a multimillion-pound contract to support DNO in the development of the giant Tawke field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has stressed its commitment to a federal, democratic, unified Iraq.

A spokesman for Wood Group said: "We have systematically and carefully reviewed the security arrangements which Shell has in place on the Majnoon field and have completed our own duty of care assessment of the facilities and site.

"Wood Group's corporate security manager has been actively involved in this review and provides individual security assessment ahead of all deployments to Iraq."