A Tees Valley engineering firm is in the running to secure an £500m contract after its move into the Middle East market proved an instant success.

Less than four months after announcing a deal aimed at expanding its presence in the Middle East the PX Group is one of a small number of firms in the running for the contract providing utilities for a new $4bn petrochemical complex in the region.

PX Group, which employs 300 staff at its Stockton base, announced in March that it had bought fellow Tees Valley engineering firm Simpson Coulson Limited (SCL), partly to help build its Middle East business.

SCL, also Stockton based, had an established reputation for its work in the Middle East prior to the deal.

Since then PX Group, which is best known for managing and operating facilities such as the Teesside Gas Processing Plant at Seal Sands, has opened an office in the region and secured two contracts.

Yesterday the group said it had won work on a £30m developmen in Dubai with construction specialist Giga Sky and engineering work on an aluminium smelter at Taweelah in Abu Dhabi with Emirates Aluminium (EMAL).

The value of the deals to PX Group was not being disclosed, but they are believed to be for a six figure sum.

PX Group chief executive Tim Underdown said: "We were looking at being registered and possibly getting some contract awards towards the end of the year. It has come a lot quicker than expected."

If the firm, which said the acquisition of SCL had "opened the door" to its Middle East expansion, goes on to win the £500m contract providing utilities from water and sewege to nitrogen and oxygen it will create new jobs and secure years of work.

The firm has "prequalified" to carry out the work by proving it is amongst a small number of bidders capable of carrying it out.

Mr Underdown said: "We would expect the decision sometime in the near future. It would be three or four years work and we would have a real recruiting drive."

The firm has also been short-listed for further work in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar and Oman by a number of potential clients.

Mr Underdown, who has recently returned from Dubai, added: "We seem to have hit the market at just the right time as it emerges from three years of austerity. To achieve success in such a short time has been remarkable."

SCL, also Stockton based, had an established reputation for its work in the Middle East prior to being bought by the PX Group.

SCL senior partner Trevor Arnold, added: "These are exciting times for the group as we continue to expand our portfolio.

"We need to recruit for both UK and overseas projects and would encourage engineers, managers and graduates who want to be part of our success to contact us."

The PX Group, formed in 2002, has experience in the commissioning and construction of facilities as well as project management, with recent projects including a pipeline to bring gas from the Breagh field, in the North Sea, to Teesside.

SCL has 30 years experience of engineering design and project and construction management.