Living with COVID-19
It’s been nearly two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began and forced people across the globe to examine and reconsider how we work and live. The offshore oil and gas industry was not immune but, thanks to existing stringent health and safety protocols, were in a strong position to adapt and evolve to the emerging threat.
NOPSEMA adapted alongside industry, utilising a range of tools to ensure the health and safety of the offshore workforce and the environment in light of the pandemic.
This included building on operator’s existing infectious disease management plans and ensuring they were robust enough to manage the COVID-19 risk. These plans were already in place for the management of diseases like chickenpox and measles and were quickly expanded by industry to incorporate COVID specific management measures.
NOPSEMA supported this through targeted inspections of each of Australia’s active facility operators. These inspections allowed HSR’s to communicate with NOPSEMA inspectors on how operators had implemented COVID-19 management systems and procedures. NOPSEMA published its own COVID compliance strategy, ensuring effective regulation of the industry during the pandemic. The strategy provided a framework for how NOPSEMA would effectively regulate during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height of the pandemic this strategy was regularly reviewed and revised, ensuring it continued to allow for adjustments in the way offshore work must be conducted, while still retaining safeguards and controls.
The industry has continued to be proactive around COVID-19 responsiveness with a recent APPEA organised upstream petroleum industry COVID-19 outbreak desktop exercise. The exercise progressed through a COVID-19 infection scenario on an offshore petroleum production facility off the Pilbara coast. Attendees included most major operators in Western Australia, along with State Government bodies involved in the industry and NOPSEMA. The exercise highlighted some existing issues with evacuating COVID positive workers from an offshore facility, and the APPEA secretariat plans to facilitate further engagement with industry and government agencies to address this issue and strengthen engagement between offshore operators and WA Health authorities.
Despite the offshore oil and gas industry’s relative security during the pandemic, COVID-19 is still a threat as was seen recently in Victorian when three crew members tested positive after returning home from an offshore facility. It is important that both NOPSEMA and the offshore petroleum industry do not become complacent and continue to encourage vaccination and other COVID safe practices as we move into 2022.
To learn more about NOPSEMA’s COVID compliance strategy see our COVID-19 page.