WOOD has won a multi-million dollar contract to work on the development of an Australian gas field.

The Aberdeen engineering giant will complete design work in connection with Shell’s Crux field, which lies around 115 miles off Western Australia.

The award provides a vote of confidence in Wood on the part of Shell, which describes Crux as an important part of its Australian gas portfolio.

Wood stepped up efforts to win business overseas in response to the crude price plunge, which took a heavy toll on the North Sea oil services business on which it used to focus.

While the partial recovery in the oil price since late 2016 has encouraged firms to approve more North Sea developments the supply chain remains under pressure.

Services firms have faced pressure to help firms that operate oil and gas fields reduce the cost of developing and running production facilities.

Accountancy giant EY said on Tuesday that UK oilfield services firms must continue to internationalise into markets with greater growth potential than the United Kingdom Continental Shelf.

It found the total turnover of UK oilfield services firms fell from £34.8bn in 2015 to £26.9bn in 2017.

Wood chief executive Robin Watson said the firm is committed to expanding its portfolio in the Western Australia region.

It will work with KBR on an engineering design for the Crux production platform and associated subsea facilities.

The output from Crux will be piped around 100 miles to Shell’s giant Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility.