OREANDA-NEWS.  July 03, 2012. China’s booming offshore oil industry is fueling a growing demand for helicopters, and some operators are now planning to double the size of their fleets over the next couple of years, according to a report in the China Daily newspaper.

The state-owned newspaper said the largest supplier of new aircraft in the region predicts that the number of helicopters in the skies above the oil-rich Chinese waters will increase from 300 today to more than 1,000 in the next decade.

Officials at the Shenzhen-based COHC say the firm will deliver the basic service of transporting workers to and from rigs and dealing with emergencies and plans to expand its scope into helicopter training, maintenance and onshore services.

China Daily said COHC dominates the domestic helicopter services industry with a 56 percent share, competing with two other major players: China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd.’s Zhuhai helicopter branch and Eastern General Aviation Corp Co. Ltd.

The newspaper said the Zhuhai helicopter branch of China Southern, with a 30 per cent share of the offshore sector, plans to expand its fleet from 17 to 50 helicopters by 2020.

The report quoted Liu Jianxin, deputy general manager of COHC, as saying it is about to take a delivery of 11 new helicopters from Eurocopter SAS, the leading European helicopter maker, over the next three years, adding to the 41 it operated at the end of last year, which included 23 working exclusively offshore.

“COHC has seen its fastest development ever over the past two years since we started operations in 1983,” the paper quoted Liu as saying, attributing the spectacular growth to the booming Chinese offshore oil sector.

According to China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the sector will achieve an annual production rate of 150 million tons of oil and gas during the 12th Five-Year Plan, and production from deep-sea exploration will be 50 million tons of that. This would translate to good times ahead for the main helicopter operators.

The demands on the helicopter crews off the coasts of China are considerable, and often dangerous, China Daily said.

COHC used all its helicopters in Shenzhen to move more than 200 staff members from rigs in the South China Sea on June 19, when a typhoon threatened the area.

The newspaper cited Christopher Grainger, vice-president of oil and gas at Eurocopter, as saying China’s offshore oil and gas industry is his main customer, and that 25 percent of the 120 Eurocopter craft in China operate to and from fields.