The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Loved ones’ ‘Testing symptom-free staff is key to restarting oil and gas industry’
Asymptomatic testing will be the key “ask from government” to help get thousands of people back to work in the North Sea, claims an industry boss.
Between major pipeline shutdowns and normal maintenance operations, work for 8,000 – 14,000 jobs this year has been deferred amid the Covid-19 outbreak, said Stuart Payne, supply chain director at the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
Not all of that can be retrieved, but the OGA and Oil and Gas UK are looking at what can be recovered this year and in 2021 to support the supply chain.
The key will be asymptomatic testing for the virus, Mr Payne said, to ensure a safe environment and halt the spread offshore. He said the question will be: “How could you try to form a maintenance opportunity in 2020, and in 2021, that could deliver real value for a lot of people in the supply chain? It could keep a lot of jobs and a lot of companies going. The ask from government is going to be around asymptomatic Covid testing.
“Could we create a safe environment, in conversation with the Health and Safety Executive, that allows people to be tested both before they leave, when they’re there, when they come back, to create that bridge between those two?”
Major work on the Sage and Forties Pipeline Systems has been deferred due to Covid-19, with oil firms seeking to stop nonessential work to contain the virus, and cut costs.
During an industry webinar, Mr Payne said the OGA is in discussions with operators about which capital projects could be safely brought back up, as well as talks with the government around “taking advantage of this moment” for lucrative decommissioning work.
At present up to 100 asymptomatic offshore workers can be tested daily at a UK Governmentbacked centre at Aberdeen Airport, but there have been calls for wider testing.
Conservative MSP Liam Kerr asked the first minister for an update on “the hold up” for testing for asymptomatic offshore workers at first minister’s questions this week. Nicola Sturgeon replied: “Because we have more evidence about asymptomatic transmission, we are expanding testing of those but focusing on care home workers and residents in particular.”
Oil and gas workers are classed as “priority two” for testing, as essential workers for critical national infrastructure, but behind frontline NHS employees and care home workers.