Petrofac, the oil services giant that is a big employer in Aberdeen, said it remained busy in the North Sea despite the fall in oil prices since last summer as it prepared to increase production in the area.

Petrofac, the oil services giant that is a big employer in Aberdeen, said it remained busy in the North Sea despite the fall in oil prices since last summer as it prepared to increase production in the area.

Announcing that it had made a good start to the year, Petrofac confirmed that operations including offshore engineering have been performing broadly in line with expectations. These have a big presence off Scotland.

While the fall in oil prices from a record $147 a barrel in July to around $70 currently has prompted operators to look to cut costs Petrofac has not found that this has resulted in them reducing investment in existing assets.

"North Sea activity levels are holding up," said a spokesman.

Petrofac could benefit from the fact that operators are putting more work out to tender in the hope of being able to make cost savings.

"Revenues have been pretty robust and we are seeing increasing levels of bidding activity," said chief financial officer Keith Roberts.

Keith Morris, analyst at brokerage Evolution Securities, said sales appeared to have fallen at Petrofac's training business but the group had seen a recent pick up in brownfield engineering.

The company, which also operates oil and gas assets, has been pleased with the progress made with the West Don field in the North Sea. This started production in April.

The first tanker shipment of approximately 472,000 barrels of oil from the Don field has been delivered to a terminal in Rotterdam.

Petrofac said it expected to start production from two wells on the Don Southwest field in the next few days. The Don fields are expected to achieve production of more than 40,000 barrels of oil per day in early 2010. The company operates both fields.

It is believed that Petrofac is considering opportunities to invest in similar projects in the North Sea, possibly with smaller firms.

In March chief executive Ayman Asfari told The Herald that Petrofac was looking at a number of deals in the North Sea.

"We are looking at deals in the North Sea and internationally, and if we see another opportunity like Don we will not refrain from investing," he said then.

In a trading update Petrofac said it was increasingly confident that 2009 would be another year of strong growth.

The company said its total order backlog is expected to be about $8bn (£4.8bn) at end June, down from $8.2bn at end April but up from $4.0bn at the end of 2008.

Roberts called crude prices at around $70 a barrel a reasonable level.

Oil fell to a low of $32.40 a barrel in December.

Shares in Petrofac closed up 11.5p at 670p.