STATOIL has handed CHC Helicopter the contract to fly staff to the Mariner field in the North Sea.

CHC will use two Sikorsky S-92 aircraft for flights between Aberdeen and Sumburgh on Shetland to the Statoil-operated field, 150 miles off Scotland's north-east coast.

The five-year contract, which has an extension option for up to three years, is expected to begin in mid-2016.

Statoil has a 65.11 per cent stake in Mariner, which it said is the largest field development in the UK Continental Shelf for more than a decade.