NEARLY 100 workers, including some from this region, will be sent to work for oil company Shell thanks to an £8m contract with a North-East company.

Wolviston, based in Stockton, has won a contract with Shell to be one of only four agencies to provide staff to offshore and onshore oil platforms around the world.

The company is already receiving between 25 and 30 applications a day from skilled workers from as far afield as Australia and China, hoping for the chance to work for the oil company.

Wolviston, which this year expects to reach a turnover of £23m, has staff which it sends to companies in the chemical industry, including Huntsman, ICI and DuPont, as well as a pool of temporary workers.

It hopes the lucrative Shell contract will allow it to draw on the specialist skills in the North-East, and particularly in the Teesside area.

Contract staff are already being provided by Wolviston for Shell operations in Nigeria.

More will follow and will soon be heading to Korea for other construction projects.

Wolviston employs more than 1,000 workers and has 22,000 staff ranging from security personnel to geophysicists on its books.

Robin Davison, who took over as managing director earlier this year, said: "It is important that we are able to announce the success of Teesside-based companies with major international operators. It is an achievement not just for Wolviston, but for the quality and skills of our workforce.

"The contract is something we are justifiably proud of. We are one of the top ten employers on Teesside - yet to many people, the name Wolviston means nothing more than a village near Billingham."

The group, which includes Wolviston Management, the international project management and specialist agency, has staff working worldwide, in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, but more than half are on Teesside in many of the North and South Tees chemical and engineering sites.

The core business is as a supplier, consultant and specialist contractor to national and international oil and gas companies.

Mr Davison said: "We are demonstrating that by offering a comprehensive service and supply package to clients, coupled with teamwork and a strong will to succeed on the international forum, we are able to gain major contract awards."