Oil service company Hertel aims to create 150 jobs in Aberdeen over the next year after setting up a base in the city.
The Netherlands-based company said its new north-east operation was needed to service existing and new clients operating in the North Sea.
Hertel, which provides a range of industrial maintenance services, including scaffolding, insulation, testing, painting and grit-blasting, is looking to recruit locally.
It wants to hire scaffolders, thermal insulation engineers and painters, as well as electrical and instrumentation technicians.
The new business – based at Dyce – is headed up by regional manager Bob Jack, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the offshore sector.
Hertel established its UK headquarters at Middlesbrough in 1975.
Today, the firm has 3,300 employees in the UK and Ireland, constructing, maintaining and modifying plants and installations in the petrochemical, process and power industries.
The UK business forms a large part of Hertel’s global activities, which turn over more than £640million a year and employ about 12,000 employees worldwide.
Hertel already provides maintenance services in Scotland at the Grangemouth refinery and Hunterston power station in Ayrshire. It also has a fabrication workshop at Cumbernauld.
The 115-year-old company said it had decided to set up at Dyce because North Sea operators were “ready for a new choice”.
Mr Jack added: “We already work onshore with a number of operators who have an offshore presence and they have indicated that they were ready for some new approaches to their maintenance needs.”