(Ecofin Agency) - Wood Group, an engineering and services company specialised in oil projects from offshore operations to refinery, has landed a multi-million dollar contract with the giant Anglo-Dutch Shell in Gabon offshore. The contract takes immediate effect and should offer job opportunities to about 200 Gabonese, we learn from Wood Group which boasts of over 40 years of experience working with Shell.

The awarding letter was delivered on 18 August, Wood Group announced, for a new five-year contract on the supply of services, estimated at many millions of USD dollars, to oil fields in offshore Gabon.

Through its subsidiary Wood Group PSN, the group must supply, as part of the new contract, construction, maintenance and industrial integrated engineering services on the Rabi, Gamba, Toucan and Koula assets.

According to James Crawford, Wood Group PSN CEO for Africa and United Kingdom, this is the first contract of this type given by Shell and which incorporates engineering, construction and maintenance services. Mr. Crawford says it is a "new approach, a first also in the Gabon oil and gas industry, which will allow the group to closely work with Shell to optimise the economic efficiency and the production for the assets in question".