Wood Group trades as expected

13th May 2009 08:02

Oil services company Wood Group has traded in line with expectations in the year to date, with market conditions similar to those at the start of 2009. Chairman Ian Wood will tell shareholders at today's AGM that exploration and production (E&P) is expected to fall by between 10% and 15% in 2009, impacting Wood's North American gas market and in Canadian oil sands activity.Some projects are subject to delays, said Wood, but larger customers are generally continuing to make major project decisions based on oil and gas prices increasing in the medium term.In Engineering, Wood has a "reasonable" level of activity and prospects, although there are project delays in upstream and oil sands, while 2009 has been a "challenging" year for Well Support.But at the Gas Turbine Services business, Wood's oil & gas related activities are benefiting from the focus on production support and the longer term contracts in place."We believe the longer term fundamentals for our products and services remain strong and we will continue to extend our services and broaden our international presence to ensure we are well positioned to resume good growth as the energy market recovers," Wood said.