The provincial government updated the protocol for the activities and services of the hydrocarbon industry, under the terms and conditions established by the national government in the face of the health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). The Chief of Cabinet and the Ministry of Health embodied the new conditions in a joint resolution. According to what the provincial government reported, this time the activity of the trucks that load Liquefied Petroleum Gas – LPG – and the arrival of imported inputs by land in storage and dispatch plants within the provincial territory are contemplated.
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What does the regulation establish?
For personnel coming from another province or another country and entering Neuquén:
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– Of areas no community transmission, is a resident of the Province of Neuquén or of another Argentine province, if it does not manifest any symptoms related to COVID-19 and complies with the control requirements described in the Protocol, they may be incorporated into the activity.
– Of areas with community transmission and the one who enters from abroad must, regardless of the fact that he had been performing the mandatory quarantine at his residence, be separated for 14 days from the rest of the staff whose residence is an area without community transmission. In order to avoid any community contact, they must remain at all times of their work diagram in the fields. This, in the case of those who must stay in the producing areas.
According to information from the provincial government, also workers who arrive at the teams on a daily basis and then return to cities with community circulation, will be able to continue with this regime. At this point, it should be remembered that this is an essential activity. “It is like the case of doctors. They go back and forth between medical institutions and the places where they live in those cities,” said a source consulted.
Resolution 5/20 that determines the conditions of the new protocol establishes that within the site, These employees will not have contact with the personnel currently affected by the operation and maintenance activities of the production.. Will be able staying overnight in facilities provided for this purpose by the operator or within the field, but separated from the rest of the staff and they will not use the dining room, the offices or the common spaces for recreation of the site.
In addition, staff from community broadcast areas, either from other provinces or from the localities thus classified within our province, in order to avoid any community contact, You will be transported directly to the site and from there back to your place of residence.
On the other hand the operating companies must generate a work scheme for each deposit in cells that are defined subgroups that respond to an operational nature, allowing the identification, traceability and health monitoring of each of its members. Each cell must be made up of 4 (four) people and must avoid interaction and contact with other cells.
The provincial government defined that Contact between members of different cells and / or eventual or non-overnight personnel in the field or personnel under the diagram will be minimized and the use of all available digital media will be promoted.
Each company must organize its diagrams considering for the personnel affected by this modality a minimum stay of 14 days in the field. The need for staff to remain in the field is due to achieving a balance between isolation from society, minimizing close contacts during transport, reduction of risk of handling given the remoteness of the operation and the psychological well-being of people.
For those cases of essential personnel that must work under diagrams and that it is not possible to comply with the period of isolation, the company, upon justification of said impossibility, will be able to guarantee work in cells without interaction with personnel from areas without community transmission, and if not possible, it will be possible to work in heterogeneous cells, after justifying this need, safeguarding compliance with hygiene and safety measures.
Activities
The authorized activities are those related to maintaining the extraction of oil and gas and its services.. Among them are the operation of deposits; Corrective maintenance; preventive maintenance in cases that are strictly necessary to continue operating safely; pulling; well safety tests; well abandonment operations; assembly and disassembly of individual firefighter apparatus, production bridges; operation and maintenance; and transportation of crude and production water in trucks.
The necessary works are also authorized due to process safety conditions; food and cleaning services for staff; on-site nursing and medicine service; well cleaning operations; drilling / workover / fracturing and well completion and related services; and works for the execution of pipelines for the evacuation of gaseous, liquid hydrocarbons and production water (pipelines).
In this update, it is also contemplated; the activity of receiving trucks that carry Liquefied Petroleum Gas – LPG – for the export or reception of imported inputs by land at storage and dispatch plants within the Province of Neuquén, bearing in mind that this activity and the oil and gas company proper, they are carried out in parallel.
It should be noted that said protocol is the joint result between the Ministries of Energy, Mining and Hydrocarbons; and of Health of the province, with the intervention of the Undersecretary of Labor, the Union of Petroleum and Private Gas of Río Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa, and the operators that operate in the Neuquén basin.
Signed by the Chief Cabinet Minister, Sebastián González, and the Minister of Health, Andrea Peve, the resolution that establishes that the new protocol “may be suspended totally or partially by the highest provincial health authority, in accordance with the epidemiological evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic, and must immediately communicate such decision to the Ministry Head of Cabinet”, which will resolve the matter.
The rule invites municipalities, business chambers and trade union organizations in the sector to collaborate in monitoring and supervising compliance with the protocol.
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