In Seria lies Brunei Shell Petroleum's Anduki Airfield.
Constructed in 1951, with a simple grass airstrip,
Anduki has come a long way.
This busy service hub
has the only "Shell branded" aircraft in the global fleet.
From here, workers can be ferried to and from
the 53 offshore energy facilities.
But with new platforms in the South China Seas,
operations at Anduki need to expand.
Today, Project Engineer Karl Acornley and his team
are taking delivery of shrink wrapped new additions…
It's a continual process,
and you've always had a deadline, and you know they are coming
but physically having them makes a big difference.
Ordered one year ago…
shipped nearly 11 thousand miles…
Is that it, there are no more trucks?
and costing over 26 million US dollars…
...two brand new Augusta Westland, AW139, helicopters.
But before they can fly,
there is the big job of unpacking and assembling each aircraft.
It's exciting for the guys
to see brand new helicopters arrive at Anduki.
It doesn't happen very often.
The new 12-seater AW139's are an addition
to Brunei Shell Petroleum's existing fleet of 3, 19-seater S92's.
They are the finishing touch
in a large expansion of aviation operations.
It's actually a historic milestone
in perhaps the history of Brunei Shell Petroleum.
With this we are able to drive operational efficiency
and improve the working conditions for the workforce.
Bartek Szczepan is part of the engineering team responsible
for these state of the art helicopters.
It's the first day with the aircraft in our hangar
so we're essentially just looking over it, from the outside in,
making sure that everything appears to have arrived in one piece
without any damage from shipping.
For 18 years, Pilot Ismail Razak has risen through the ranks of BSP
and now trains its new pilots.
What's special about this particular helicopter
is that it's one of the world's most advanced medium-sized helicopters.
You don't touch any of the engines, it's all automatic.
It's just like starting a car.
When the battery's in, your fuel valve.
You switch it on and it starts turning.
Before Ismail can begin training new pilots,
every single component must be thoroughly checked by the engineers.
We'll check the batteries, check the voltages...
This aircraft needs two batteries,
each twice the voltage of an average car's.
Without them the helicopter is immobilised.
We have a flat battery, the aircraft internal battery.
It may have just discharged itself in transit
because it's taken many months to get here.
The batteries will take at least two days to fully recharge.
In the meantime, the engineers focus on the safety features.
So this for example is a rear float,
in the event of the aircraft having to make
an emergency landing on water, this becomes a big balloon.
Inside it has nitrogen bottles, and the cover blows away,
so now you've got an expensive floating raft.
Project Engineer Karl is running the checks on these flotation devices.
There is a minimum pressure that should be in those bottles.
There is a graph here on the side
so we can calculate what that pressure should be.
These bottles are below the minimum pressure
that is acceptable to fly this aircraft.
It was definitely at 4000 when it left.
Now we've just checked it here and the guys are telling me its 3000,
so there's a leak somewhere.
Even if I charge it up it's still going to drop.
In this particular case we are not allowed to charge the bottles.
These state-of-the-art float bottles
can only be re-pressurised at the manufacturers in California.
It could mean a two-week wait.
That now means we no longer have floats on this aircraft,
which means we can't fly over water.
And as our primary role is offshore maritime oil and gas,
that is a problem.
The search is on for a spare float bottle.
If Karl can't find a fully-pressurised replacement,
this brand new helicopter will be grounded.
Meanwhile Bartek is checking out the blades.
What we have in these boxes are main rotor blades
and I'm about to inspect them,
so we have to remove them from the box,
put them on our little stand
and have a good long look at them, to make sure everything's okay.
The five main composite rotor blades will slot into a titanium hub
and create a 14m-wide span.
It's OK, I've got this end.
As Bartek prepares to fit the blades,
Karl has solved the float bottle problem.
A replacement has been found in stores.
We've got a spare bottle.
Take this off, change the bottle out and then send the spare away
and get them to recharge it.
This aircraft is back on track.
On the other side of the hangar,
the five, one hundred and fifty thousand dollar blades
are ready to install.
Putting the main rotor blades on makes a helicopter look complete,
so now at least it looks somewhat fit for flight.
Without it, it's like a wingless bird, right?
While engineers get the helicopter ready,
Training Captain David Cameron arrives to check progress.
Judicious use of the hammer. Jolly good!
A hammer can be a very useful tool.
We call them persuaders.
As soon as a pilot appears on the scene,
a little bit of a nervousness runs through the crowd,
and understandably so.
With the helicopter almost complete,
Brunei Shell Petroleum's Aviation department
is about to enter a new phase in its development.
I think in the longer term because of the expansion activities,
there's plenty of opportunity
to train up local engineers, local crews, a lot of opportunities there.
I'm actually looking forward to putting this into action
and reaping the benefit of this programme.
The only outstanding things we have are the number 2 comm antenna.
The assembly of the AW139 is complete.
The batteries were serviced and refitted because they were both flat.
It's passed a ground test…
and now Ismail and David prepare to take it up.
These are the approvals that allow us to fly the aircraft,
this is the final stage of the legal side that says we can fly it
and carry passengers to the offshore environment.
After months of anticipation, Ismail is looking forward
to the benefits of the AW139's advanced avionics.
This aircraft flies by itself better than the pilots.
Not many pilots would like to agree with that,
but it is how modern avionics works.
It is more of managing and monitoring what is going on in front of you.
It does take you back to the first time you flew an aircraft.
You have a big grin on your face because fundamentally it's a fun job.
There's no two ways about it.
On a nice sunny day like today,
going out and flying the aircraft is just a sheer joy.
The new kit will enable Anduki to be an efficient service hub
for Brunei's expanding offshore industry well into the next decade.