Inverness firm Orion Group has signed a multimillion-pound deal with oil giant Shell.
Orion – a specialist in engineering recruitment – said it had extended an enterprise framework agreement (EFA) with the operator for a further four years, providing technical manpower for Shell projects across the world.
It did not reveal the value of the deal but it is understood to be worth more than £75million to the business.
The new agreement comes nearly three years after Orion signed the first, similar deal with Shell.
Orion hopes the extension will help it increase annual turnover from £320million to an estimated £360million in the current trading year.
Chairman Alan Savage, a former chairman of Scottish Premier League football club Inverness Caledonian Thistle, said it also meant the company could continue to expand despite tough economic conditions.
He added: “Orion’s strength and ability attracts some of the world’s largest energy specialists.
“Shell’s EFA allows Orion Group to continue to grow through the volatile global economic situation in the UK and overseas.
It comes four months after Orion, now in its 25th year, won deals worth a combined £20million a year with Canadian energy firm Nexen.
Orion will provide 140 workers for Nexen’s £2billion Golden Eagle development for the next five years and continue to provide recruitment services for its offices in Aberdeen and Uxbridge as well as offshore installations in the North Sea, west Africa and the Gulf of Mexico for the next three years.
The Highland firm employs more than 340 people in 19 offices around the world and provides up to 5,000 staff to clients including BP, Talisman and Wood Group PSN at any one time.