Caverton Helicopter, a subsidiary of Caverton Offshore Support Group, an oil and gas logistics firm, has lost its lucrative contract with Chevron, an oil major to Bristow Helicopter.

The development comes amid the firm’s continuing financial struggles triggered by dwindling revenue as shown in its 2021 financial results, in which it recorded N5.9bn loss.

Sources say Caverton Helicopter lost the contract due to its poor maintenance culture for its helicopters, amongst others.

Recently, on May 11, one of its helicopters crashed in Cameroon, killing eleven people on board, including two pilots and nine passengers.

Chevron, it was learnt, had at some point opted to take over the responsibility for the maintenance of the helicopters which Caverton uses to fly its personnel to oilfields and onshore, not trusting the firm’s capacity to do so.

The poor maintenance issue and bad helicopter made it impossible for Caverton to meet up with demands, such as conveying Chevron personnel to requested locations, resulting into the latter contracting Bristow.

Aside from its Helicopter issue, the source said Caverton has been struggling with wage payment, according to a report by Ripples Nigeria, and with the contract loss expected to make the workers in charge of the Chevron logistics redundant, the oil & gas company mandated Bristow to absorb them.

The contract lost to Bristow is a blow to Caverton’s financial capability, having secured about $17 million to finance the Chevron contract, according to documents filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).

The contract loss bodes ill for the firm’s hopes of turning the corner after a turbulent 2021.

Caverton investors have also been exiting their funds in the company, with the massive sell off resulting to shareholders investment in the firm dwindling by -33.72% year-to-date, according to Ripples Nigeria analysis.

The bearish run has wiped off N1.94 billion from Caverton’s market capitalisation, which now stands at N3.81 billion as of Tuesday, below the N5.76 billion it started the week with, as the sell off among investors weakened its share to N1.14kobo, down from N1.72kobo.

Caverton has not responded to enquiry on the contract termination, poor maintenance culture and unpaid salary in the organisation