Xodus, which helps oil companies to assess the economics of new fields, is one of the growing number of support-services companies helping the world’s oil producers to record profits.

Last week, Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, posted a profit of $36 billion (£20 billion), the biggest in the history of corporate America. On Thursday, Shell set a new record for a British company — $23 billion. The bumper figures are due to the rise in the price of oil and gas and to higher margins on refining.

The support-services sector — from contractors who carry out seismic surveys to consultants and rig providers — is making hay as the oil giants’ profits trickle down the industry. Many firms are reporting that turnover has doubled in a year.

Jeff Corray, UK senior oil and gas partner at consultant KPMG, said the service sector was now beginning to feel the benefits of the majors’ investing. He said: “Margins have been slim for years. Oil companies were reaping the benefit of the high oil price but not investing. Now service companies are reaping the rewards.”

Seismic-survey contractors are the first to benefit when the industry starts to boom, according to the oil-services firm Petrofac. Business at surveying firms such as Schlumberger and Halliburton is brisk. Seismic surveys, which cost about $2m a time, are designed to detect the kind of geological structures where oil might be found, such as rock formations whose outline resembles an upturned teacup.

Owners of offshore drilling platforms, such as Rowan, which offers the Gorilla and Tarzan rigs, are also among the first to profit during an oil-industry upturn. The most sophisticated deep-water drilling rigs cost up to $500,000 a day to hire, compared with $150,000 two years ago. With the world fleet of such rigs numbering less than 100, demand far outstrips supply.

The oil giants’ recent profits may be eyewatering, but they cannot spend the money as quickly as they would like on new developments. The sector is suffering from a lack of services, equipment and skilled workers.

Ayman Asfari, chief executive of Petrofac, whose customers include BP, Exxon, Total and BG Group, said: “Oil firms are spending as much as they are able to spend. Infrastructure is a bottleneck.”

The oil companies also have to overcome outdated attitudes to investment. They have been wary ever since the oil-price slump of the 1990s.

Manpower is another problem. Work in the industry is seen as dirty and arduous and this puts people off. Last year, only 200 petrochemical engineers graduated from American universities compared with thousands in the industry’s 1970s heyday. Britain produced 88 from three or four universities.

Some design engineers in the industry are on “superstar wages” because the demand is so high and their numbers are so low. Some have set themselves up as self-employed contractors charging more than £350 a day — and getting it. Most companies have no choice but to pay.

Stats UK, a specialist oil-engineering firm in Aberdeen which has contracts with leading companies such as Shell and Chevron Texaco, was forced to search for workers in Poland because the skills shortage in the British oil industry has become so acute.

Pawel Motyl is one of 12 Polish fitters, welders and machinists recruited by the firm. Late last year, Motyl drove more than 350 miles through the night to Warsaw to sit a complicated mechanical-aptitude test, which he passed with the highest score of any candidate. He swapped his $200-a-month job for a salary of £22,000 a year. Stats UK director Lorraine Porter is travelling to Poland again soon to look for more workers.

Times Recommends

• Global stocks rally on Fannie and Freddie rescue
• Green gives warning of 'double dip'
• ‘Winter of discontent’ looms amid strike action