Last checked at 
* Oil and gas services company says conditions broadlyunchanged
* Growth in production services sector offsets weakerengineering (Adds details, comment)
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - British energy services companyWood Group on Wednesday maintained its growth outlook for2014 thanks to strong demand for its services from operators inthe North Sea and the fast-expanding U.S. shale sector.
Growth in the production services (PSN) segment was set tooffset a weaker engineering sector hit by oil producers' budgettightening since 2013 as earning remained on course to post amodest rise this year, Wood Group said.
"We see the trend and we are not immune when these thingshappen. This is why we looked at 2014 last year and signaled wedidn't think results would be as strong as initially thought,"Chief Executive Bob Kieller told Reuters.
"There is a focus on greater capital efficiency and gettingmore for the money spent so ultimately we can provide serviceswhen client spending declines ... Clients are very keen to getgood return on assets so we make sure we don't over engineerthings."
Producers seeking to squeeze extra drops of oil out ofageing North Sea assets and the booming shale business in theUnited States were the backbone of the company's operations.
PSN performance was also boosted by the Wyoming-basedservices firm Elkhorn, which it acquired last November.
"In the North Sea demand remains strong and we arebenefiting from significant contract renewals secured in 2013,"Wood Group said in an interim management statement ahead of theannual shareholder meeting.
The Aberdeen, Scotland-based company's performance in theengineering and PSN segments were slightly ahead ofexpectations, it added.
Wood Group shares had risen 0.39 percent by 1440 GMT whilethe broader oil and gas index was down 0.38 percent.
The oil and gas services sector, which provides engineering,construction and maintenance services for producers, has seenseveral companies issue profit warnings in recent months as aresult of the increasingly challenging environment. Last week,FTSE 100 contractor Petrofac trimmed its 2014 revenueoutlook.
In the subsea business, Wood Group said it had been awardeda contract for the initial phase of the subsea and pipelineengineering and project management at Azerbaijan's largest gasfield, the Shah Deniz II which is operated by a consortium ledby BP.
The company reported pre-tax profit of $413 million onrevenue of $7.1 billion for 2013.
Following Wednesday's annual meeting, Wood Group ChairmanAllistair Langlands retired and was replaced by Ian Marchant,who has been a non-executive director at Wood Group since 2006. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Kate Holton and TobyChopra)
