Norway’s Equinor said on Friday it had secured 15 new helicopters through contracts with helicopter manufacturers Bell and Leonardo, with first deliveries expected next year.
Norway on Thursday halted all helicopter traffic to its offshore oil and gas fields after a deadly crash, and said it was considering grounding Sikorsky’s S-92A aircraft model while investigating the accident.
The first two helicopters from Leonardo would be delivered in the first quarter of 2025, while seven would be delivered in 2026, it said.
“By increasing from one to three helicopter models on the NCS (Norwegian Continental Shelf) we get more flexibility and regularity,” Equinor’s head of Norwegian operations, Kjetil Hove, said in a statement.
He added the new helicopter types would supplement the current Sikorsky S-92.
The remaining six helicopters would be delivered in the period between 2027 and 2030.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Essi Lehto)
