..its strange that the oil companies let them get away with it, or do they condone it because it's cheap?
I know here in OZ, the oil companies using helicopters for off shore ops, mostly American interestingly, are VERY pedantic about who, how and why, with a continual stream of safety audits. Most operations, if not all (?) are twin engine, twin crew IFR, in 90% of the time, CAVOK skies. No night ops.
Strange set of double standards. Are the GOM oil companies 'small players' or the big boys doing this?