With oil and gas being struck further out at sea,firms eye long-distance helicopters

Chopper companies involved in off-shore operations out of Mumbai are looking at acquiring a new generation of helicopters that can travel longer distances to meet the increasing demand of oil and gas companies....

Chopper companies involved in off-shore operations out of Mumbai are looking at acquiring a new generation of helicopters that can travel longer distances to meet the increasing demand of oil and gas companies,as they venture deeper into the sea.

Currently,most of the choppers fly within 100 miles into the sea on the west coast. But with the ninth round of oil block auction slated for later this year,aviation companies are looking at choppers that can travel 190-250 miles into the sea at a time. This is because easy oil,at sites closer to the shore,has already been explored.

In order to meet the growing requirement of the oil companies,helicopter companies would have to import these new generation of long-range helicopters, said Captain Uday Gelli,president of the western region of the Rotary Wings Society of India. Countries in West Asia and the United States are chief exporters of these machines. Some helicopter aviation companies have already begun procuring these new range of machines. We have acquired three such longdistance machines,we will be adding three more machines by the end of this year, said Siddharth Verma,executive director,Heligo Charters Pvt Ltd.

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The chopper companies are acting on the demand that has already come through,which they say is only likely to increase. At present,ONGC is running a tender for exploring sites at 250 miles into the Sea. CGG Veritas,which conducts seismic explorations for oil and gas companies,has put up a requirement for choppers that could travel 250 miles into the sea on the east coast of India from October this year. Last year,the CGG Veritas requirement was 190 miles into the sea.

Currently,80 per cent of the countrys oil is procured from Bombay High,which is at 60 90 miles off the west coast. Most helicopter aviation companies currently use medium range helicopters like the Bell 412,which first came out in the early 1980s. The last variant for this came out in 1997. These are ideally suited to the distances of 75 miles to 100 miles. The new crop of machines that have only recently begun to come into India – like the AW 139 – are said to be at least 30 per cent more powerful and can travel upto 220 miles with a reduced pay load.

Beyond this,to go further into the sea,companies would have to look at larger machines like the S-92 are more powerful,but are more expensive to operate.