A spate of the novel corona virus infections abroad western offshore installations has forced ONGC to evacuate crew members from two of the four hired rigs and forced the state run explorer to put additional checks to prevent contractors from compromising on the company protocols to cut down on costs.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has evacuated a drill ship in Mumbai High following the outbreak of COVID-19 among workers, the third instance in three months of rig evacuation that highlights the growing challenge of operating offshore sites during a pandemic.
All the workers on the drill ship, have been bought back to the base for testing and quarantine, resulting in suspension of work on the rig, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is extremely challenging tom operate offshore drilling rigs in the current situation, "ONGC Chairman Shashi Shankar told, Social distancing is hard to afford for workers on the work floor and risk of one infected person transmitting it to others is very high on a rig.
ONGC had previously shut operations at two rigs - Sagar Jyoti and Sagar Kiran in Mumbai Offshore after 54 staffs tested positive for coronavirus and one died of it, triggering demands of a safer work environment by ONGC staff bodies.
ONGC has more control over production sites, which is mainly populated by its own employees while drilling rigs have mostly employees of the rig operators.