I find the whole thing rather amusing. It seems fairly obvious that many of you have little or no knowledge of the way the off shore industry works.
Cost is the overriding factor, not quality of service. Some accountant in BP is on a big bonus to come up with more ways of saving money. They award the contract to the lowest bidder and the operators fall over themselves to do it for next to nothing. When the contract is awarded the Oil Company then gives the contractor a hard time if things don't go too well. The crewing is sorted out as you go along, generally using the least experienced co-pilots available and scraping around for Captains. The training will be minimal to save cost, and yes the CAA will do anything that anyone asks and then criticizes the crew paper work.
The pilots get as little in pay and allowances as the operator can get away with until they get fed up and leave and then we just draft someone else in. Meanwhile the clever accountant goes off to spend the money the crews should have had. Sounds cynical I know but its damn close to the truth.