Rotors and Rigs-North Sea Helicopter Operations

摘要

Aflypast at Aberdeen Airport by a Bristow Helicopters' Eurocopter EC225LP and AS332L on July 26 marked 40 years of the company's, and the airport's, association with helicopter flights supporting offshore oil and gas production in the North Sea. The north-east of Scotland airport is still the hub of operations for these flights with Bristow, CHC and Bond Offshore Helicopters competing for the contracts to transport personnel and, to a lesser extent freight, out to the installations. Illustrating the scale of the operation last year over 417,000 workers were transported from Aberdeen on 40,000 helicopter flights. Business is booming at the moment due to the high and sustained market price of 'black gold' which is encouraging investment and increased activity with mobile offshore units, more commonly known as drilling rigs, being moved into the North Sea to tap into reserves. In addition, new technology is allowing oil fields in deeper water to be exploited while also making smaller deposits economically viable. The useful lifespan of some older production platforms (these are fixed installations) have been extended by being sold to smaller companies with lower cost bases, which can profitably continue production when larger firms may have ended their involvement in a field. Today, there are 147 manned and 134 unmanned installations in UK waters. In the casernof the latter, flights may be flown to these to conduct maintenance or correct a fault. In addition, crews and freight are transported to helideck-equipped ships.