Norwegian Energy producer, Statoil, has awarded a multi-year contract for helicopter services to Everett Aviation in Tanzania. Everett will lease three AW139 helicopters from the Bristow Group in support of Statoil’s drilling operations offshore Tanzania and Mozambique. Two aircraft will be used for crew change work whilst the third will be a high specification, dedicated, Search and Rescue aircraft.

Simon Everett, CEO of Everett Aviation said “this is a significant win for Everett and a further step in the company’s business expansion and focus on the oil and gas industry offshore East Africa. We are delighted to have the opportunity to provide services to Statoil and to continue our provision of offshore helicopter services in East Africa. We believe that our decision to partner with Bristow Helicopters for elements of this project will bring significant benefits to the project and the long term plans of Everett Aviation in this region”.

The Director of Bristow’s International Business Unit, Duncan Moore, said “We are delighted that Statoil has expressed confidence in our collaboration with Everett Aviation in making this award. This region is an extremely promising geographical market for offshore oil and gas and we are fully confident that our collaboration with Everett Aviation will deliver an unrivalled operational capability, backed by an uncompromising commitment to Safety, Operational Excellence and benchmark Service standards”.

Everett Aviation is committed to the development of the local helicopter industry and will shortly be selecting a group of Tanzanian pilots who will be sent for training at the Bristow Flight Academy in the USA for a Commercial Helicopter License. Everett believes this will bring significant benefits to the project and the long term development of the local industry.

Everett will be expanding their existing base in Dar es Salaam with the construction of a new 2,300m2 hangar plus offices and workshops.

Everett Aviation has operated for nearly 20 years and is the only East African commercial operator of twin-engine helicopters. Everett is a member of the European Helicopter Operators’ Committee. In addition to the provision of helicopter support to offshore Oil and Gas companies, Everett Aviation also provides onshore services to international mining companies, and medevac services (with NVG and FLIR) to governments and government agencies. For more information visit the company website at www.everettaviation.com

Bristow Group Inc. is the leading provider of helicopter services to the worldwide offshore energy industry based on the number of aircraft operated and one of two helicopter service providers to the offshore energy industry with global operations. The Company has major transportation operations in the North Sea, Nigeria and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Alaska, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Trinidad. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.bristowgroup.com.