WOOD Group has won contract to provide support services on a giant Canadian oil field which will provide a valuable boost amid the downturn triggered by the crude price slump.

The Aberdeen-based company has been appointed to work on the Hibernia platform off Newfoundland for a group of oil and heavyweights which includes ExxonMobil.

The value of the five year deal was not disclosed but it looks likely to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The contract renews an existing deal and also includes additional maintenance work. Wood expects to recruit more staff to service the contract, which has 200 people working on it.

The award comes as Wood Group grapples with the challenges posed by the fall in activity in the North Sea, where oil and gas firms have been cuttings spending under most cost headings besides essential maintenance.

Since taking charge in January, chief executive Robin Watson has been focused on getting the group in shape to cope with what may be a long period of low oil prices.

He believes the industry is “bobbing along the bottom” of the market.

A slow recovery is in prospect. But Wood Group is not planning on the assumption that there will be a return to the kind of boom conditions seen in the North Sea during the long period of high oil prices which ended in 2014.

The group has laid off more than 2,000 people in the UK following the fall in crude prices, from $115 per barrel in 2014 to less than $30 in the first quarter.

Mr Watson sees scope to win work in the Americas, where plenty of money is being invested in areas such as the Gulf of Mexico.

Crude has recovered some ground in recent months amid hopes that major producers such as Saudi Arabia would curb output to boost prices

However, Brent crude fell around $1 to $50.7 per barrel yesterday afternoon.

Market watchers have noted the difficulties that would be involved in agreeing a deal that all the major players would buy into.