Helicopter manufacturers battle to stay aloft over treacherous waters

November 1 each year brings an extra hazard to the already demanding life of the men and women working on the oil and gas platforms scattered along Australia's northwest shelf. Along with the rigours of long distances from shore, often rough seas and operating drilling equipment in deep water, the six months from the start of November bring the threat that cyclones will blow across the Indian Ocean, making the platforms dangerous and uninhabitable.

The conditions are typical of the severe environments in which oil and gas producers increasingly operate, as high oil prices and better drilling techniques allow them to work further and further from shore.

There are similarly tough conditions in offshore parts of the Arctic, Russia and the North Sea. The launch of an inquiry by UK and other European regulators last month into five helicopter crashes in the North Sea over the past four years underlines the risks involved.

The operations depend on a rising number of large, heavy-duty helicopters operating at the very limits of their safe ranges from land and capable of handling conditions that would once have been considered impossibly dangerous.

The market is a duopoly comprised of the US's Sikorsky, a subsidiary of United Technologies, and Eurocopter, part of Europe's EADS. No other manufacturer makes aircraft with the 10-tonne take-off capability required to serve the most distant platforms.

The question is whether the two can maintain their strong market position while meeting oil producers' demands for aircraft capable of hugely demanding tasks - such as evacuating distant oil platforms quickly in the face of a cyclone.

"These long-distance, deepwater finds are usually in remote places, with a harsh environment," says Thierry Mauvais, Eurocopter's head of oil and gas market development. "In this environment, there's an almost systematic element of challenge."

Dan Rosenthal, president of Milestone Aviation, a helicopter leasing company, says demand for such long-range, heavy-duty helicopters continues to grow. "As the platforms move further and further offshore, you can see the demand line for helicopters increasing in parallel."

The requirements are tough, according to Carey Bond, president of the Sikorsky division that makes some of its heaviest duty civilian products. The longest range missions require enough fuel to reach rigs and to fly back if landing is impossible. They must also carry an extra safety reserve.

"We're looking at it in that light," says Mr Bond. "How do we get out to that point a full load of passengers and keep up safety and get the high reliability rate that customers demand?"

At the heart of the manufacturers' efforts, according to Mr Bond, has been work to improve fuel efficiency. As the efficiency improves, the proportion of an aircraft's weight devoted to fuel can drop.

With one of its newest products, the S-76D medium-sized helicopter, Sikorsky improved efficiency by about 15 per cent through a new engine, better aerodynamics and more sophisticated rotors. The improvements allow operators to fly to rigs far faster.

Sikorsky has developed for its S92 heavy-duty helicopter an entirely automated system for landing on rigs - known as "rig approach" - to make landings safer. "It's a safety breakthrough and it's a productivity breakthrough," says Mr Bond. "If you can get an aircraft that can [land] in even worse weather conditions, that's going to be key for our customers."

Fuel efficiencies are helping builders of smaller helicopters - including the US's Bell Helicopter, part of Textron, and Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland - to nibble at the edges of Sikorsky's and Eurocopter's long-range market, according to Ed Washecka, chief executive of Waypoint Leasing, a helicopter lessor. Both Bell and AgustaWestland are extending the range of their biggest medium-sized helicopters thanks to fuel efficiency.

However, the biggest risk for Sikorsky and Eurocopter is that a long-term fall in oil prices might deter oil producers from continuing their quest for hydrocarbons from difficult - and expensive - deep-sea fields such as Brazil's new pre-salt fields.

Neither manufacturer expects much fall-off from declining oil prices, not least because most helicopter trips move crews to and from production platforms, which tend to keep working when prices fall.

"We make sure that our range will match exactly the future demand, not only in distance but also mission capability, environment, temperature and so on," says Mr Mauvais. "When we see the investment in exploration, it's huge and it's continuing." As long as that investment continues, Mr Mauvais says, the scale advantages of helicopters with a lift-off weight of 10 tonnes or more - a segment in which only the S92 and Eurocopter's EC225 compete - will remain compelling.

"If you're talking about the market between shallow water and up to about 160 miles, the competition is more open to medium-sized aircraft," says Mr Mauvais. "For long distance, a 10-tonne helicopter is a no-brainer."

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