A company which employs about 300 people in Cumbria has announced millions of pounds of losses in its annual results.

Engineering consultancy Amec Foster Wheeler - which has offices in Westlakes Science & Technology Park, Moor Row and at Sellafield as well as staff based at the BAE Systems submarine yard in Barrow - saw its pretax loss grew to £542m in 2016 from £235m in 2015

The company made and adjusted profit of £254m before tax down 24 per cent from the 2015 figure of £334m. This figure though does not include many of the company's costs.

Its revenue also dropped from £5.455m in 2015 to £5.440m last year.

In March the firm announced that a £2.2bn takeover with Aberdeen-based oil services company Wood Group had been approved by both firm's boards of directors. This is expected to be completed in the final quarter of this financial year.

The deal, if it goes ahead, is unlikely to affect Amec's Cumbrian operations, which deal mainly with nuclear projects, including in Sellafield and Barrow, as this part of the company is up for sale. A deal on this is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

Jon Lewis, the firm's chief executive, said: "Given conditions in natural resources end markets, our 2016 trading performance was robust, as we benefited from the breadth of our business - especially the record performance from solar - cost saving actions and the fall in sterling in the second half of the year.

"We continue to expect another year of decline in oil and gas activity in 2017 and for solar activity to reduce significantly from the record levels seen in 2016. It is also expected that there will be a better performance from environment and infrastructure and a further significant contribution from standalone overhead cost savings.

"This year, we will continue to leverage the outstanding technical expertise of our people to best serve our customers and deliver projects safely across all the markets in which we operate. This and the improvements we have made to the business will ensure we continue to make significant progress in 2017".