Wood Group has established a new data analytics centre of excellence at its office in Galway, Ireland. The centre, which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through IDA Ireland, broadens Wood Group’s capabilities in advanced data analytics to support the oil & gas, industrial, utility and power generation sectors.

In warmly welcoming the Wood Group announcement, Minister Mary Mitchell O Connor TD said: “This company is at the cutting edge of providing services for the oil and gas and power generation industries and will create further high skilled jobs in Galway. It is very gratifying that they are based in a regional location, and their expansion here dovetails with the Government’s Regional Action Plan for Jobs process.”

Enhancing Wood Group’s digital solutions capabilities, a key focus of the centre will be the innovative application to the energy industry, of data analytics technologies developed and deployed across other industries. Wood Group is looking to grow the data analytics team to ten people by year end with the intention of developing further employment opportunities next year.

Bob MacDonald, Wood Group’s CEO Specialist Technical Solutions said: “Wood Group’s commitment is to providing innovative technical solutions that solve our client’s challenges. We recognise the power of data analytics to enable our energy industry clients to optimize their exploration and drilling activities, enhance efficiencies and maximize the productivity of their assets.

“This new centre, made possible through the support of the IDA, greatly enhances our specialist technical capabilities, enabling us to handle large quantities of data effectively and embrace and explore new innovations and technologies for the oil & gas, industrial, utility and power sectors. This broadening of our capability in data analytics, married with our strong expertise and heritage in engineering will create exciting new opportunities for efficiencies that will directly benefit our clients.”

Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs & Natural Resources, Sean Kyne TD, who attended the announcement, said: “The decision by Wood Group to establish a new centre of excellence in data analytics in Galway is a very welcome and positive sign of growth in this sector in Galway. This investment complements our aims, contained in the Action Plan for Jobs for the West, of fostering innovation and of building sectoral clusters. The establishment of a Data Analytics Centre of Excellence by Wood Group in Galway will help make the West of Ireland a global leader in this emerging sector.”

IDA’s CEO Martin Shanahan said: “This is a welcome development from this well established company, taking it in a new direction to position it for further growth in the future in the area of data analytics to support these specialized sectors. This move by the Wood Group demonstrates its commitment to its Galway site.  It is also an endorsement of the region, showing it to be eminently suitable as a location for this type of activity.”