Background

The Campos Basin is a petroleum rich area located in the Rio de Janeiro state that is responsible for 1.3 million barrels a day of petroleum production. The Campos Basin accounts for 80% of Brazil's petroleum production.

Oil development operations in the Campos Basin include heavy helicopter traffic between the continent and oceanic fields during daytime, with an average of 50 minutes per flight.

 

 

Helicopter flights are conducted at low altitudes and oil platforms are located more than 60 nautical miles from the region’s main airport, Macae. As a result, helicopter operations cannot be monitored by Air Traffic Service (ATS) from the Macae airport, the region’s main airport, which only supports air traffic within a 45 nautical mile radius and 9500 foot and above altitude.  ATS for these offshore helicopter operations is then provided through the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system.