IN THE NEWS / Cougar Helicopters Inc. Wins Third Major Deal
11/28/98
St Johns Evening Telegram
Cougar Helicopters Inc. has won a $20 million contract to supply helicopter services to the Petro-Canada-led Terra Nova consortium, solidifying its position as the chopper company of offshore Newfoundland.
Terra Nova announced Friday Cougar won the bid to provide helicopter services for support subsea construction work, drilling activity and operations from 1999 to 2002.
Cougar, which edged the only other bidder, CHC Helicopter Corp. of St. John's, will be able to rely on its fleet of three Super Puma helicopters which service the Hibernia platform.
In fact, Hibernia was about to scale back to just two helicopters for its operations, Cougar base team leader Rick Burt said Friday, but another offshore contract — exploration work for the Jeanne d'Arc Basin Operating Group — allowed the company to keep all three aircraft at its St. John's Airport hangar.
“Hibernia was going to get rid of the third machine this year but with the Jeanne d'Arc work, we're keeping our capacity,” Burt said.
Work for the Jeanne d'Arc consortium — which includes Mobil, Petro-Canada, Norsk Hydro, Husky Oil — is expected to start this Sunday with the arrival of the exploration drill rig Glomar Grand Banks.
Burt said Cougar may increase its fleet for the Terra Nova contract.
“There's certainly an option there to bring on a fourth,” he said.
It all depends on whether Terra Nova requires extra capacity during the initial start-up of production, and what other exploration activity is under way on the Grand Banks at the time, he said.
Terra Nova chairman Gary Bruce said both offers provided a high level of capability and expertise, but Cougar's offered the best value.
Despite cornering the market for offshore Newfoundland, the latest contract was anything but a slam dunk, Burt said.
“We didn't assume anything, we thought it was extremely, extremely competitive,” Burt said.
Cougar opened its books to Terra Nova, he said, and showed the consortium exactly what its costs and profits would be.
There are still additional potential helicopter contracts coming to the region over the next few years, Burt said, including a possible contract for Gulf Canada's planned operations in the St Pierre - Miquelon corridor and possibly, further down the road, a Mobil Oil contract for deep-water targets on the Flemish Cap.
Cougar is also in the bidding for a Department of Fisheries and Oceans surveillance contract, which is currently held by Provincial Airlines, but is expected to be awarded for another five year term some time next week.
The surveillance contract is for fixed wing aircraft. |
