THE owner of a North-East industrial coatings firm has reported a 10 per cent rise in revenues on the back of activities in US shale gas market.

Oil services company, Wood Group, reported earnings were £2.7bn in the first six months of this year.

There was strong growth in the group's production arm with earnings up 47 per cent driven by performance in shale.

But there was weakness in the firm's upstream activities. The engineering division reported a fall in earnings.

The Aberdeen-based company, which designs, builds and maintains oil and gas facilities and pipelines, said it continued to expect full-year earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) to increase from last year, led by its production services segment.

Measures to reduce costs in the North Sea have been implemented amid industry-wide concerns of rising operating expenses in the region. Wood Group cut day rates for contract workers by 10 percent “ahead of the market, but then the market followed,” Chief Executive Officer Bob Keiller said in the statement.

Last year, John Wood Group took over Gateshead-based industrial coating firm Pyeroy, which was founded 40 years ago to maintain ships in the region's famous shipyards.

Mr Keiller, added: "We have seen strong performance in our PSN Production Services activities in the US shale market, offset by an anticipated lower contribution from upstream engineering and weaker than expected performance in our turbine activities.

"Overall, the outlook for the group for the year remains unchanged from the position outlined at our December 2013 trading update."