PANews:
Not sure you have that quite right:
The reason that the 'pop-out' windows are now de rigeur for offshore operations is because it has been demonstrated that it is nearly impossible to evacuate through the required exits within the breath hold time for the average occupant (remember that these helicopters are only required to be certificated to Sea State 4 - although the S92 and EC225 better that standard). A trial conducted in Canada with a notional large aircraft with 19 seats made that quite clear - this is nothing to do with the size of the (required) emergency exits. Thus best practice indicates that a passenger must not be more than one person removed from an acceptable escape route (a pop-out window).
That aircraft fuel is carried under the floor causes the problem for types that were certificated earlier - to meet the revised requirements, the fuel has to be installed outside the fuselage.