Health Management Challenges of the Pandemic - A Case Study from Recent Pipeline Repair Campaign

Avoiding an offshore COVID-19 outbreak while executing an urgent and intricate pipeline repair campaign is a significant challenge, especially in a country that is experiencing a COVID-19 positivity rate of more than 20% on daily basis. Any minor mismanagement of health management on the DSV (diving support vessel) may lead to a COVID-19 outbreak with the risk of shutting down the campaign and significantly impacting the business continuity objectives. Therefore, the major health management challenge is to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak on the DSV to ensure the well-being of personnel during campaign and to achieve the necessary pipeline repair. The approach taken was to deploy the DSV with team and tools/equipment as soon as possible to avoid a prolonged platform shutdown due to the pipeline leak event. In order to carry out the project, a detailed risk assessment taking account of medical, logistics and security considerations was undertaken in order avoid a COVID-19 outbreak on the vessel. The risk assessment enabled an adjustment to the quarantine requirements for the pipeline repair team before departure to the work location. A contingency plan was also developed to manage a scenario in which a member of the offshore team was infected with COVID-19, and in order to comply with applicable government regulation. Through the effective implementation of a detailed risk assessment, the company was able to complete the pipeline repair campaign without any offshore COVID-19 outbreaks. On the DSV there were 65 personnel working on multiple activities to execute the pipeline repair works on time and on budget. The site team made a diligent effort to follow the mitigations identified in the risk assessment, under the direction of company Business Continuity Management Team (BCMT). As a result of this effort, the company was able to resume production from the offshore platform in a timely manner. This paper discusses the effective implementation of detailed risk assessment on a DSV as part of company business continuity management amid COVID-19 pandemic in the country, including medical, logistics and security considerations. This project was implemented in a year-end period, beyond normal conditions and in a tight schedule.