Oil and gas engineering firm Wood Group today said staff numbers had risen by 10% since December in order to meet continued strong demand.

Oil and gas engineering firm Wood Group today said staff numbers had risen by 10% since December in order to meet continued strong demand.

The group said its engineering and production facilities division, which provides a variety of services to oil firms, had taken on an additional 2,000 people in less than a year, including at its engineering hub of Aberdeen.

Wood, which now employs more than 27,000 people in 46 countries, said pre-tax profits rose 46% to $181.3 million (£98.3m) in the six months to June 30.

It expects the strong growth to continue and said results for the full year were likely to be ahead of forecasts.

Chairman Sir Ian Wood said: "Overall, our markets are robust and the demand for our services remains high."

Continued expansion of Wood's international activities has seen it move into countries including Peru and Colombia.

John Wood added that its North Sea market remained strong with a healthy pipeline of refinery upgrade work. Activity on contracts with BP, Shell, Talisman, Total and Apache has been high, while it has also won work with newer entrants such as Ithaca and Oilexco.

Around one-third of revenues from production facilities come from outside the North Sea, which Wood expects to increase as it expands internationally.

The company added: "We expect to see continuing growth in the overall demand for energy with the ongoing increase in demand from the developing world offsetting the possible impact of slower economic growth in developed countries.

"Pressure to maintain and grow supply should continue to result in robust levels of investment by our clients, with decisions continuing to be based on oil price assumptions well below current levels."

Revenues from engineering and production facilities were 29% higher in the half-year to $1.56 billion (£843.8m), leading to a 53% improvement in profits to $148.8 million (£80.5m).

The company's well support division, which provides services to boost production rates and efficiency from oil and gas reservoirs, improved earnings by 17% because of strong demand in North America and growth in Latin America.

The third division of gas turbine services posted flat revenues but saw revenues improve 20% after an internal restructuring.