Passenger movement figures released today by Step change in Safety and OGUK show a decline in suspected coronavirus cases across the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry.
The data tracks the numbers of workers travelling back offshore, with four different categories of transport depending on their status.
The dataset released today shows the number of individuals displaying what could potentially be Covid19 symptoms has reduced from 56 in the week ending 5 April 2020 to 20 in the week ending 3 May 2020.
As with all sectors, the oil and gas industry holds no information on confirmed cases and continues to call for expanded testing capability across the workforce as an additional preventive measure to stop the virus reaching offshore platforms.
Commenting, OGUK HSE Director Trevor Stapleton said:
“This apparent reduction is a small move in the right direction but we can’t stress enough the need to remain alert, to continue to follow protocols and to raise any concerns in both on and offshore working environments. OGUK continues to work on a cross industry basis through our Pandemic Steering Group, where our focus remains on increasing testing capacity for our key workers and improving our understanding of how COVID-19 is impacting our sector as we look towards ensuring our industry is able to recover from the significant challenges we are currently faced with.”
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Notes to Editors:
Passenger categories explained:
Category A: Passengers with no symptoms and able to travel on a normal crew change flight
Category B: Passengers with no symptoms but who are known to have been in contact with someone with symptoms. These passengers are able to travel on a normal crew change flight.
Category C: Passengers who shows mild symptoms and who needs to be transported on a separate flight.
Category D: Passengers who have a serious or potentially life-threatening condition and need to be transported by the coastguard.
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