AMEC Foster Wheeler has reported a dip in pre-tax profit in the first half of 2015 as market conditions remained challenging, but the company said it is confident it can meet full-year expectations.

The oil and gas services company, which has offices in Darlington reported a £73 million pre-tax profit in the six months to June 30, falling from a £83 million profit a year earlier, as revenue rose to £2.66 billion from £1.85 billion.

However, scope revenue, which is revenue less pass-through procurement revenue, fell to £2.58 billion from £2.61 billion.

Profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional items came in at £106 million, which was up from £96 million a year earlier.

Amortisation and exceptional items knocked off GBP92.0 million from its pre-tax profit, whereas the year before it only came in at GBP65.0 million.

Amec, which has its European engineering division headquartered in Darlington, last year agreed a £2bn deal to buy US firm Foster Wheeler, which has offices in Middlesbrough. The rebranded Amec Foster Wheeler employs about 700 people in the combined Tees Valley operations, with an additional 200-plus in its environmental services headquarters in Newcastle. An additional 500 people are employed across the region off-site or on project work.

Oil, gas and mining market conditions are anticipated to remain challenging, particularly the upstream oil and gas segment. The downstream segment, particularly petrochemicals, "remains resilient," it said.

The clean energy segment will generate slightly less full-year revenue than the last financial year due to delays to the start of work for significant projects in its order book, the company said.

Amec Foster Wheeler said it has a "strong pipeline" which stands at £6.6 billion, which it believes it can grow going forward.

"Our expectations for the group's full year results remain consistent with previous guidance: underlying scope revenue is expected to be modestly lower than last year's pro forma result, and we continue to expect a reduction in trading margins," said the company.