Egypt’s Petroleum Air Services (PAS) is fanning out into the Middle East to win new work, particularly in the oil-and-gas segment, even as it looks to expand its fixed-wing operations.
“We are the sole service provider for all oil-and-gas companies in Egypt,” Hany Abdoun, PAS’s assistant chairman, told AIN. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says Egypt is the largest non-OPEC oil producer in Africa and the second largest dry natural gas producer on the continent.
New gas concession rights have been granted in the last two years in the Mediterranean for international companies, he said, among them Italy’s ENI and the UK’s British Petroleum.
“In the Gulf of Suez, they started production in the 1950s. Wells are old. But companies are interested in getting more production.”
PAS’s helicopter fleet work is 99 percent serving oil-and-gas companies, for which the company provides daily crew change to rigs or platforms in the Gulf of Suez (oil exploration) and the Mediterranean (gas).
To serve the growing market the company has positioned its helicopter bases around the country. In the Mediterranean area, these are at Alexandria Al Nuzha Airport, Port Said and Sidi Kreir. It has Gulf of Suez bases at Ras Shukeir, Ras Gharib, Zeit Bay, El Gouna and Hurghada, and a Sinai base at Abu Rudeis. Its main heli-service center is at the small oil terminal port of Ras Badran in the Sinai, five kilometers north of Abu Rudeis.
PAS has fleet expansion plans, to meet oil and gas demand. The company signed a letter of intent at the Dubai Airshow for the Bell 525 Relentless. In addition, it is looking to extend beyond Egypt. It has ambitions to work in West Africa and is also looking at establishing bases in Cyprus and Malta. “We are in the process of registering our company with oil and gas companies [outside Egypt],” said Abdoun.
In March the company received certification from Bell Helicopter as a North Africa customer service facility.
Fixed-wing Operation
The company also has plans to expand the business beyond helicopter operations. It has a fleet of 38 helicopters and seven fixed-wing aircraft (five Dash-8 Q300s and two CRJ 900s). The fixed-wing aircraft operate charters and the company is pursuing approval from the Egyptian CAA to fly scheduled fixed-wing services later this year.
These would be to oil companies in Basra, Iraq; and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. “There is no other direct flight from Cairo to Basra. We go through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.”
PAS is an EASA-approved third country operator (TCO).
It conducts aerial survey operations, rescue, ambulance, aerial photography, pollution control, pipeline surveillance, air taxi services and charter flights, and repair and maintenance in-house and for third parties. Its fixed-wing main base is at Cairo International Airport.
