UPDATE 2-US shale presence helps John Wood Group's core profit

* Expects FY EBITA to rise from a year earlier

* H1 rev rises 10.3 pct at $3.80 bln

* Shares jump 6 pct (Adds analyst comment, updates share movement)

Aug 19 (Reuters) - John Wood Group Plc, a Britishenergy services company, is banking on its presence in the U.S.shale industry to drive growth, after its production servicesbusiness helped offset weakness in other divisions in the firsthalf of the year.

Shares in the company rose 6 percent, making the FTSE-250 component one of the top five percentage gainers on theindex on Tuesday morning.

The company expects full-year earnings before interest, taxand amortisation (EBITA) to increase from last year, led by itsproduction services division, Wood Group PSN, which accounts formore than 60 percent of total revenue.

"Wood Group's 1H 2014 (first half) results and the outlookfor 2014 reflect the importance of its exposure to U.S. shalewithin (mainly) the PSN business," Credit Suisse analysts saidin a note.

The company's primarily shale-related U.S. onshore projectshave brought in more than $500 million of revenue so far thisyear. Revenue from Wood Group PSN rose 22.4 percent to $2.34billion in the first half of the year.

Wood Group PSN works on modification, enhancement andabandonment of mature oilfields, while the company's engineeringsegment designs, builds and maintains oil and gas facilities andpipelines.

Wood Group said EBITA from production services rose 47percent, but fell 9 percent in its higher-margin engineeringservices segment, hurt by a slowdown in upstream projects insome regions.

Total EBITA rose marginally to $243.9 million for the sixmonths ended June 30 from $243.2 million a year earlier.

Total revenue rose 10.3 percent to $3.80 billion.

The company, which competes with Amec Plc, raisedits interim dividend by 25 percent to 8.9 cents.

Shares in the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company rose 4.6percent to 786 pence at 0953 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.They touched a high of 796.5 pence earlier in the session. (Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing byGopakumar Warrier)