FABRICATIONS firm Wilton Marine Services has won a multi-million pound contract to supply parts to a North Sea oil rig.

The Teesside company has been working on the project since January and is supplying two rig caissons and pipework for the Dunbar and Alwyn Platforms.

The contract, which Wilton director Steven Pearson said was "massive" for the company, is being carried out for energy firm Total E&P UK. Wilton Marine Services, which is part of the Middlesbrough-based Wilton Engineering Group, has doubled in size during the past year.

The group, which began as a steel fabricator 12 years ago, has quadrupled its workforce to more than 200 in the last three years - with 50 more positions set to be created over the coming months.

It has turnover of more than £17m. Yesterday, as the first phase of work on the project was completed, the biggest barge to travel up the River Tees - at 200 metres long and 50 metres wide - arrived to transport the caissons.

Mr Pearson said the work was a massive boost to the company, which is based at the old 30-acre former Swan Hunter shipyard in Port Clarence. The demand for offshore underwater structures has increased as oil and gas companies, particularly in the existing fields of the North Sea, continue to build infrastructure, including pipework and protective coverings for valves, he said.

"Each caisson is 150m long. Constructed in one piece, they have been technically challenging to manufacture and load out.

"When complete, the barge will be towed down the River Tees by four tugs to meet the sea-going tug that will tow it to its eventual destination, which is the Dunbar and Alwyn Platforms, where ultimately they will be used to transfer oil and gas from the seabed to the platform topside."

Mr Pearson said he expected the boom in the oil and gas sector to continue, adding: "We expect to see growth over the next three years as demand for fossil fuel reserves is not going away."