Three contracts worth more than NOK 1 billion have been awarded to CHC Helikopter Service for transport services to and from Statoil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf.
These assignments relate to flights from Kristiansund, Florø and Bergen, with the job for the first of these destinations placed jointly with Shell and Norsk Hydro.
CHC Helikopter Service holds the contracts for all the flights from before.
Worth NOK 675 million excluding options, the Kristiansund assignment covers Heidrun, Åsgard, Njord and Draugen in the Norwegian Sea. It comes into force on 1 July and will run for five years, with options to extend by a further five.
CHC Helikopter Service will be deploying the new Sikorsky S-92 at Kristiansund. (Photo: Sikorsky)
The Florø contract, covering Snorre and Visund in the North Sea, runs for three years from 1 June and is worth NOK 125 million.
Covering Gullfaks, Statfjord, Troll A, Veslefrikk and Kvitebjørn in the North Sea, the three-year Bergen job begins on 1 January 2005 and is also worth NOK 152 million.
The Florø and Bergen contracts include options to extend them by up to two years.
All three contracts provide room for greater flexibility in providing flights to and from other bases.
"In the longer term, we’ll need fewer machines in both Kristiansund and Bergen,” says Per Terje Svalland, manager of Statoil’s air transport sector.
CHC Helikopter Service is due to deploy the new Sikorsky S-92 at Kristiansund on 1 July 2005. And a Super Puma L2 will be replacing an older Sikorsky S-61 at Florø on 1 June this year.
These replacements introduce new helicopter technology, and provide larger cargo capacity as well as higher speed.