NHV helicopters to support Neptune in North Sea

Offshore helicopter operator NHV Group has won a new long-term contract with Neptune Energy in support of its Seagull field development located in the UK Central North Sea.

Under the initial eighteen months agreement, the H175 flights will depart from NHV’s base in Aberdeen to transport passengers to the drilling rig, NHV stated on Monday.

The H175 aircraft, an Airbus Helicopter’s Super Medium type is specifically designed to meet the evolving mission needs in the oil and gas industry, the helicopter operator explained.

NHV’s first two aircraft of the type entered into service in December 2014. The company then gradually expanded its H175 operations to bases in the North Sea and West Africa.

NHV started operating out of Aberdeen at the beginning of 2016 and announced the opening of a new hangar, apron, and passenger handling facilities in October 2016.

NHV’s base manager, Jamie John, commented: “This new contract again allows us to showcase our safe, reliable, and efficient H175 services.

“The Seagull passengers will benefit from our state-of-the-art handling facility, whilst experiencing the comfort and safety features of the H175. We look forward to building a genuine and reliable partnership with Neptune Energy and are eager to start flying on their behalf”.

Neptune is the operator of Seagull and has a 35 per cent equity interest. Its joint venture partners are BP with 50 per cent and JAPEX with 15 per cent.

Neptune has recently started drilling on the Seagull project, using the Gorilla VI (JU-248) jack-up rig, operated by Valaris.

The rig will drill four wells for the development over the course of the drilling campaign which is expected to last 18 months.

The Seagull is a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) development on UK licence P1622 Block 22/29C, 17km south of the bp-operated ETAP Central Processing Facility (CPF).

The development will be tied back to the ETAP CPF, partially utilising existing subsea infrastructure.