The flying in the Niger Delta has been increasing for a few years now and both Bristow and CHC have expanded their operations, with CHC in particular bringing in many new fixed wing and helicopters and spending close to $2 million on their new facilities in Port Harcourt NAF Base. However, the flying may tail off for now while foreign oil companies and investors wait to see how the new government, due to take over in 2 weeks, handles the security situation in the volatile Niger Delta region.
Only around half of 45 oil exploration blocks Nigeria put up for auction Friday attracted bids, with foreigners wary of political uncertainy ahead of a government change, officials said.
The vast majority of those who submitted bids Friday were domestic oil companies. The few foreign bidders were virtual unknowns, an AFP reporter at the auction said.
Oil and gas analysts blamed the timing of the auction for the lack of interest on the part of big western oil companies.
The bid round comes between the April elections and May 29, the date at which the outgoing administration of Olusegun Obasanjo hands over to its successors.
Oil majors are uncertain as to how the incoming government will handle the problem of the Niger delta, where more than 30 foreigners have been abducted since the start of the month.
Nigeria has already cut back the number of blocks it decided to offer in the 2007 bid round. Senior energy officials had initially said late last year that some 60 blocks were going to be offered to satisfy massive interest from Asian investors.
The same officials subsequently revised down that figure to 45.
Some international, and notably Asian, oil companies that had been given priority to make bids for certain fields declined to do so.
The 11 inland basin blocks among those offered Friday attracted no bids at all.
Tony Chukwueke, Nigeria's Director of Petroleum Resources (DPR), admitted on the sidelines of the auction that the absence of bids for those blocks was "a bit disappointing."
He declined to comment on the way the auction as a whole went.
The unrest in the region has continued unabated since the elections with kidnappings of expatriate oil workers, evacuations of Chevron and Shell installations and huge pipeline explosions all in the last week.
Bristow claim that they now have enough pilots, but that isn't borne out by shortages around in the operations. CHC are still short of pilots and are still losing a number to Bristow. They hope that their annual pay review which is due soon, will equalise pay between the two companies and stop the drift away. With engineers, the traffic is in the other direction, the number of pilots going one way being about equalled by the number of engineers going the other way. The move to better housing by Bristow seems to have led to less pilots refusing to go to Port Harcourt and the prospect of working a 4/4 roster flying the S76C++ out of Escravos is likely to be popular now that Brsitow and Pan African Airlines pay have been equalised. Meanwhile, CHC are still discussing final plans for their so-called Death Camp and seem unlikely to move for a couple of years. They're continuing to bring in new helicopters and any oil company auditing operations must be impressed by the modern fleet and excellent engineering facilities in Port Harcourt. It's rumoured that CHC will be giving Bristow tough competition on renewal of the Shell contract.