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Our Heritage

Wood Group has enjoyed a long tradition of success, from its early days in the 1900s when the Wood family's business began. William Wood, Sir Ian Wood's grandfather, founded Wood & Davidson, a ship repair and marine engineering firm to service the fishing fleet.

Flash forward more than half a century to the 1970s, oil & gas reserves were discovered in the North Sea and presented an ideal opportunity to translate marine engineering experience into engineering and support services. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, in addition to the oil & gas and power generation industries, Wood Group has increased its focus on the environment by establishing the renewable energy services group and expanding our scope of operations within the alternative energy industry.

1912

  • Wood & Davidson, a ship repair and marine engineering firm formed

1955

  • John Wood took over as chairman

1964

  • Sir Ian Wood, John Wood’s son, joined the business, now named John Wood & Son
  • Marine base was expanded into fishing, fish processing and general marine engineering

1970s

  • Oil and gas reserves discovered in the North Sea
  • First UK offshore oil produced

1979

  • Wood Group awarded Shell Brent Field contract, the company's first major offshore contract
  • Wood Group Gas Turbines established

1980s

  • Wood Group split into two businesses: John Wood Group, focused on engineering, and J W Holdings
  • US operations established
  • Awarded maintenance contract in Middle East
  • By 1989 was UK’s largest indigenous oil service company and a world leader in the overhaul & repair of gas turbines

1990-95

  • Rolls Wood Group joint venture formed with Rolls-Royce plc to extend overhaul and repair capability
  • Began to build Well Support business
  • J P Kenny acquired to enhance life-of-field capability, based in UK, US, Australia, Malaysia and Norway

1996-99

  • Wood Group joint ventures received BP operations & maintenance contract in Colombia and decommissioned Brent Spar
  • Wood Group Pratt & Whitney and TransCanada Turbines joint ventures formed to provide gas turbine repair and overhaul
  • Well Support operations expanded into Argentina

2000

  • Mustang and Alliance Engineering acquired, provided market-leading engineering services for deepwater facilities and lightweight topsides
  • Four deepwater facilities, 66,000 tons of topsides, designed simultaneously for BP
  • J P Kenny won design of BP’s 50-mile Bombax gas pipeline, offshore Trinidad
  • Power plant operations & maintenance business established

2001

  • Established Energeticos, Wood Group Colombia and Wood Group Production Services
  • Engineered 270km Spain-to-Majorca gas connector; West Seno deepwater pipeline, offshore Indonesia; BP Clair platform, UK North Sea

2002

  • Successful IPO on London Stock Exchange
  • Operations established in Brazil, Trinidad, Indonesia
  • Engineered Marathon Alba facilities, Equatorial Guinea; Tangguh subsea pipelines, Indonesia; grassroots gas-to-liquids demonstration plant
  • Established turbine controls business

2003

  • Engineering work included Beguela-Belize, offshore West Africa and first compliant piled tower outside US; Murphy Kikeh, first deepwater discovery in Malaysia; and Su Tu Den FPSO, Vietnam
  • Support began for TOTAL and Talisman, UK North Sea; Marathon, Equatorial Guinea; BP Colombia and Brunei Shell Petroleum
  • Neal & Massy Wood Group joint venture established in Trinidad

2004

  • Commissioning company DSI and flow assurance consultancy MSi acquired
  • Began engineering Independence Hub, clean fuel modifications and refinery upgrades
  • LNG expertise demonstrated by LNG Smart Air Vaporization and new storage tank design
  • Gas turbine business grew with long-term power plant contracts in New York, Colombia and Thailand

2005

  • Technical information and procedural documentation consultancy ODL acquired
  • Wood Group Production Facilities Asia Pacific established
  • Well Support business expanded via 10-year contract for Esso in Chad
  • Contracts for operations & maintenance of Sevan Piranema FPSO and turbine maintenance for Termonorte Energy drive growth in Brazil

2006

  • Engineering awards included Cairn Energy’s Mangala production facility in India and first commercial application of LNG Smart technology
  • Gas Turbine Services awarded fast-track construction of new peaking plants in US for American Electric Power and 16-year gas-turbine contract for Suez in Oman
  • Awarded first duty holder contract, for Chestnut field FPSO

2007

  • Allister Langlands appointed chief executive
  • Awarded topsides engineering and commissioning of world’s deepest offshore platform, Shell Perdido; engineering of second compliant piled tower, offshore Angola; maintenance & modification of BP’s facilities in Trinidad, UK duty holder contracts
  • IMV Projects acquisition increases presence in the Canadian heavy oil market

2008

  • Acquired training services provider M&O, deepwater riser specialist group MCS; leading onshore US O&M provider Producers Assistance Corporation (PAC)
  • Awarded FEED for Masdar, world’s first green city and global engineering agreement for BP’s subsea projects
  • Appointed duty holder for TAQA’s North Sea assets
  • Wood Group Pratt & Whitney opened new US overhaul & repair facility

2009

  • Became leading provider of O&M services in US Gulf of Mexico via acquisition of Baker Energy
  • Eastern Hemisphere power plant EPC services grew via acquisition of Shanahan Engineering
  • Mustang Al-Hejailan Engineering established in Saudi Arabia
  • Mustang awarded global automation agreement by Chevron, FEED for Jack/St. Malo topsides

2010

  • Asia Pacific presence expanded with opening of Perth corporate office and extension of Shell Brunei contract
  • Awarded detailed design of Jack/St. Malo export pipeline
  • Middle East/Africa focus expanded with long-term PDO contract awarded to CCC joint venture, first subsea FEED in Nigeria completed
  • Invested in renewables consultancy SgurrEnergy

2011

  • PSN acquired and merged with Production Facilities to create Wood Group PSN, the leading global brownfield production services provider
  • Well Support division sold to GE Energy Manufacturing
  • GES+ contract received from Saudi Aramco
  • Mustang Al-Hejailan Dar PI, formed in Saudi Arabia to be leading in-Kingdom engineering provider
  • GTS awarded long-term power station O&M contract for Newcrest gold mine, Australia