Wood Group in Saudi joint venture

Wood Group subsidiary Mustang Al-Hejailan Engineering is to merge with two Saudi-Arabian engineering businesses to form Mustang Al-Hejailan Dar PI (MHDP).The Wood Group subsidiary will be the major shareholder in the new venture. The junior partners are Dar E&C and PI-Consult, both of which are longstanding providers of engineering services to Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's national oil company.Dar's gross assets at the end of 2010 stood at $6.27m while PI-Consult's gross assets on the same date were $8.41m.Oilfield services specialist Wood Group said the newly formed company would employ around 500 people and would work on the general engineering services contract awarded to a Mustang Al-Hejailan Engineering-led consortium by Saudi Aramco, on 3 March."In the longer term, we fully expect to see growth for MHDP through the development of further customer relationships in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the areas of downstream and infrastructure," said Mick Straughan, the Wood Group director responsible for engineering.--- jh