Bristow Norway secures SAR contract in Barents Sea

Bristow Norway announced on 18 September that it has secured a multi-year contract to provide helicopter offshore search and rescue (SAR) and crew change services to support Eni Norge and Statoil in the Barents Sea. The five-year deal, which is a renewal of an existing contract, includes options to extend by three years, and will commence on 1 September 2018, said Bristow.

Bristow Norway area manager Heidi Wulff Heimark said: “We are honoured to earn the trust of both Eni and Statoil in the safety and quality of our operation. This contract is a result of our team’s tremendous focus to continuously improve our service delivery, and strengthens our position as the leading operator of offshore helicopter transport in the global market.”

The contract will mean continued high activity at Bristow Norway’s helicopter base at Hammerfest, said the firm, where the company currently provides helicopter services for Eni and Statoil exploration and production operations in the Barents Sea. Bristow noted that Hammerfest is already an established helicopter base for Bristow Norway, with the necessary infrastructure and workforce in place.

Bristow will utilise a Sikorsky S-92 in oil and gas configuration to provide crew change services for offshore platforms, and a Sikorsky all-weather SAR S-92 for the search and rescue work. Both helicopters will be equipped to the latest Norwegian oil and gas standards, with integrated traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS II), tail-mounted cameras and performance-based navigation (PBN), said the company. The AWSAR S-92 is certified for night vision goggles (NVG) operations, with forward looking infrared (FLIR), auto hover, twin-hoist, mission management with moving map and increased on-board medical capabilities. On short notice, the crew change helicopter can be reconfigured as a backup for the SAR helicopter with full AWSAR capability, said the firm.

Heimark commented: “The Barents Sea is a strategically important region for Bristow, and we foresee continued growth of exploration and production activities in the coming years. With this contract and our Arctic experience, Bristow is well-positioned for coming exploration campaigns in the high North.”