A TYNESIDE engineering company is planning to open a shipyard 5,000 miles away in India, its first outside the UK.

McNulty's, in South Shields, has been building oil rigs and floating oil production vessels in the region for 20 years.

But now, as North Sea oil runs out, the company wants to open its first foreign base to tap into the developing Asian oilfields. Managing director Steve Keyworth has pledged to keep winning orders for the Tyneside yard and said the expansion into India will help secure employment and create jobs in the North-East.

The yard has been tipped to win a major share of work on the two aircraft carriers ordered by the Royal Navy.

This week, Mr Keyworth will fly to India to meet managers at a shipyard to discuss McNulty's using the yard to build rigs and floating oil production vessels for the oil and gas fields being opened in the Indian Ocean.

Declining to name the yard, he said: "We are in advanced negotiations with an Indian shipyard to export McNulty's offshore skills into the Indian offshore market.

"The obvious advantage is that we will have a shipyard in India and they will be able to convert to an offshore facility. We will also use this as a stepping stone into the Far East.

"While McNulty's has worked all over the world, we've never had a facility outside the UK. The yard in India will heavily rely on South Shields and I think it would create opportunities for skilled offshore workers and management on the Tyne and opportunities in India."