There are at least two considerations for companies serving the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry.
One is that expectations for safety are extremely high, all the time and in every activity. The other is that companies involved in exploration and production want service providers that are reliable, collaborative and innovative.
According to Mark Abbey, CHC’s regional director for the west North Sea, oil and gas companies ultimately want service partners – like CHC – that can help them safely take advantage of opportunities offshore while constantly improving their efficiency. Engineers, he said, play essential roles in both of those areas – and CHC is in the market for more of them right now.
“Every day, CHC carries thousands of offshore workers safely to and from their remote workplaces, including from our largest North Sea base, Aberdeen,” said Mr Abbey.
“In this region, that requires a fleet of heavy aircraft that is modified and maintained to operate at the highest levels of safety and availability. Our talented and dedicated engineers – along with highly-skilled pilots and the rest of the CHC team – make that happen.”
Mr Abbey said that there is no shortage of reasons that opportunities at CHC are appealing to experienced licensed engineers and shift managers.
CHC has a huge presence around the world, and operates more than 50 aircraft from 11 bases in the west North Sea alone (covering the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands). About 20 aircraft are based in Aberdeen and CHC crews carried more than 140,000 people on 9,000 flights from the Granite City last year. At that scale, CHC Aberdeen is one of the company’s largest bases and plays a major role in enabling customers, offshore workers and CHC team members to go further, do more and come home safely.
But CHC is not resting on yesterday’s accomplishments.
“We are constantly improving, with changes that are making us more capable and efficient,” said Mr Abbey.
“Those improvements are raising aircraft availability and achieving other benefits, which provide great value to customers.”
Additionally, he said, CHC is regularly investing – including in its people, fleet and facilities – so that the company can best serve customers now and in the future. In December, the company announced a major project to expand hangar capacity at Dyce, create a larger and more streamlined passenger terminal, and establish a new flight operations centre.
Mr Abbey said that in the first weeks of 2015, CHC is introducing two new, technologically advanced heavy aircraft to its Aberdeen operations: Sikorsky S-92 and Airbus EC225 helicopters that will be put into service, supporting the offshore industry, as soon as thorough engineering and flight acceptance tests are completed.
Customers are taking notice of CHC’s transformation and industry leadership. For instance, Total E&P UK recently extended a decades-long relationship with CHC, awarding the company a long-term contract to support its operations. Statoil also selected CHC to support its start-up of operations in the UK sector.
Taken together, Mr Abbey said that CHC “presents the skilled engineers who we are looking for with a great opportunity to work with some of the world’s most experienced colleagues and talented pilots on a large fleet of new-technology heavy aircraft. We are expecting a strong response to our recruitment campaign”.