Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared by WHO on March 11, 2020, almost all the services scheduled by our clients were suspended. At this time, not much information was available about its impact and the progression of the virus in Brazilian territory, and as a result, safety policies were not yet mature.

Initially, we provided and encouraged the use of masks and private drivers due to the lack of intercity transportation. We also provided authorizations to cross sanitary barriers on the roads and opened a direct dialogue with employees in order to provide what was needed to reduce the sensation of insecurity.

After the first two weeks of uncertainties and low level of service activity, business started to move again, as oil production could not stop.

Unfortunately, the pandemic intensified. Cases of Covid-19 were identified on board platforms and vessels in Brazil and the need for offshore companies to change their daily routines was evident.

The impacts on work policies

Despite the guidelines to prevent the progression of coronavirus in offshore activities announced by the ANP and governmental agencies, there is no common policy adopted by oil companies against Covid-19. Each oil company is implementing its own guidelines to protect workers' health and continue oil and gas production.

Initially, our customers, with the most conservative approach, implemented a one-week quarantine in a hotel room before allowing anybody to go offshore. This was adopted in the hope that any symptoms of the disease would appear before going offshore, in the case that a person had been contaminated. Later on, other companies applied less effective actions, such as checking body temperature before going offshore or requesting medical documentation.

As an offshore service provider, we realized the need to adopt preventive procedures in order to guarantee employees' rights and to carry out safe operations. Due to the seriousness of the pandemic, working with maximum safety procedures are important to ensure the health of employees and the continuation of offshore operations.

In addition to carrying out health checkups, our offshore service technicians are required to be in isolation before going offshore. If someone shows symptoms of contamination and/or has had contact with a person, who is contaminated, our security policy does not allow this technician to provide any services offshore.

As a result of this safety policy, we have not yet registered any positive case of Covid-19, and we have only encountered one situation that caused greater concern.

The incident was with an employee, who had boarded the same flight as a person that were showing symptoms of the virus during the period offshore. Our client's immediate response was to isolate this person and everyone, who had had any contact with him. We subsequently established contact with the client's medical team to collect all information and consulted our own occupational physician.

Our service technician arrived ashore and was examined by a medical team and tested for Covid-19. To avoid the possibility of contaminating the employee's family, we provided him with a hotel room until the test results was ready. Almost seven days later, the result of the test was ready and fortunately it was negative, which meant that our technician could go home safely.

The life of an offshore technician

In our industry, offshore workers are the most affected during the pandemic. While technicians, who are currently not offshore have been provided with online technical and safety courses and already have mechanisms for reporting without being in the office, it is not possible for offshore workers to work from home.

The consequences of the new procedures for offshore workers put them in a less favorable condition, since the extension of their working hours, at sea and in quarantine, forces them to be away from their families for much longer time than previously.

As for the Covid-19 situation, many difficulties and uncertainties are still in play, however, we have found that the entire industry chain is concerned and committed to preventing the spread of the virus amongst employees and on offshore units. We will have to work together to ensure the health of offshore workers and only then we will manage to keep the offshore market strong, while fighting against the coronavirus.

About the author: Denis Morais is a Service Manager at Ulstein Belgian Marine. He is a graduated engineer and has worked for almost twenty years with technical service companies in automation and electronics for the offshore and naval segments. During his career, he has participated in important projects and commissioning in Brazil and abroad.

About the Author: Denis Morais is a Service Manager at Ulstein Belga Marine. A trained engineer, he has worked for almost twenty years in technical services companies in automation and electronics in the offshore and naval areas. During his career, he participated in important projects and commissioning both inside and outside Brazil.