AS a major new revenue source for Guyana’s government, it’s critical that oil production continue despite the challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping our oil flowing provides a source of revenue at a time when our government may have to spend heavily in response even as the economy contracts under the weight of social-distancing measures.
Though we have not yet won the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies operating in the Stabroek Block offshore are working to carefully balance continued production with caution.
Responsible and efficient operations depend on healthy and safe workers. Companies have developed and deployed very detailed comprehensive plans to keep their operations and their workers safe and healthy. According to media reports and information from the companies, workers headed to the floating production vessel 200 km off the coast are spending at least 14 days in mandatory quarantine onshore. Health and safety experts from Stabroek operator, Exxon, worked with medical personnel to come up with the screening process.
According to the company, workers are paid during this time while they are closely monitored for any signs of the virus. Any of the workers coming in from overseas are flying into Guyana only on chartered flights with limited numbers of passengers, like the one that arrived last week from Britain. The aircraft are carefully sanitized and social distancing is maintained onboard.
Only after the two-week observation period at a private facility and a screening at the Ogle Heliport are workers allowed to travel to their offshore bases, which have their own medical facilities for crew and onboard health professionals. Offshore production facilities normally maintain small but sophisticated medical facilities onboard in order to provide routine care and first response treatment in an emergency.
The fight against COVID-19 does not stop with their offshore operations. Oil companies also contributed to non-profit groups here in Guyana that are working on the frontline to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
Exxon, along with its partners in the Stabroek Block Hess Corp. and CNOOC, announced last week that it contributed more than GY$60 million to groups like the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Salvation Army and Rotary Guyana. The money will go towards COVID-19 relief efforts that the Department of Energy (DoE) helped identify as critical to public health and is part of an existing collaboration between the companies and the DoE.
Roughly $40 million went to the CDC to support the Ministry of Public Health in providing additional quarantine facilities, food, sanitation items and equipment, including personal protective equipment for medical staff.
The money will also help pay for hampers of relief supplies including food, cleaning and sanitation supplies, cloth masks and educational materials about public health and safety. These hampers will go to vulnerable populations like senior citizens, children’s homes and the economically disadvantaged. The Salvation Army and Rotary Guyana each received $10 million grants to support hamper distribution in the regions and buying N95 medical masks, oxygen tanks and other gear for hospitals and clinics.
Director of the Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, said his department is, “pleased to be associated with this national effort to bring some level of relief to our vulnerable communities and those on the frontline in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic in conformity with the ideals of shared sacrifices.”
This new round of health contributions is separate from the funding previously provided by the Stabroek Consortium to programmes for training, capacity development and environmental causes like the Centre for Local Business Development and Conservation International’s ecosystem research.
International companies operating often invest in initiatives like these in part because they depend on local suppliers and employ a large local workforce. The industry is also trying to do its part to combat the new and unique challenges posed by the coronavirus, providing funding support and working to ensure that their workforce does not contribute to the wider spread of the disease.
