Norway's air navigation service provider Avinor is to employ automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast to monitor helicopter traffic serving the Ekofisk, Sleipner and Heimdal North Sea oil fields. The system should be fully operational by 2013.
Traffic is heavy: Avinor said that every year there are 160,000 passenger trips between Ekofisk and the mainland alone.
"Every time technology takes a step forward in the work to make an already safe mode of transport even safer, it is a milestone for Avinor," said Avinor chief executive Dag Falk-Petersen.
The ADS-B system is to be provided the US-based Sensis. A total of three base stations are to be established on the mainland outside Stavanger and Florø, and there will be eight on the oil installations at Ekofisk, Sleipner and Heimdal. ADS-B will provide more detailed information on helicopter activity than radar technology.
Project manager Bjørn Hovland said that the new installations are to be approved in April 2013. "We look forward to co-operating with the supplier and to becoming a small part of Norwegian offshore history," he said.
Source: Flight International
