12 covid19 cases on Shell offshore platform

Shell TT confirmed on Friday that 12 of its personnel on an offshore platform have tested positive for covid19.

Demanning the platform has begun, with 29 people remaining to ensure that production continues. Shell declined to name the platform in an effort to maintain patient confidentiality.

These 12 cases were included in Thursday's Ministry of Health summary.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, Shell said one person who had come off the platform tested positive.

Subsequently, everyone else working during the same shift as that person was tested, including individuals who had already returned to shore, as well as the remaining personnel on board the platform. Of those, 11 were also positive.

Shell maintained that there has been no impact on production and the facility will be deep cleaned.

While the number of people on a platform can vary, at the time (Sunday), there were 113. This has now been reduced to the minium required to safely maintain production.

"We have been and will continue to take steps to protect employees, following guidance from the Ministry of Health, while maintaining data privacy and individual health confidentiality," the statement said.

Shell's external relations manager Candice Clarke-Salloum said the people being removed from the platform will go into quarantine out of an abundance of caution. Those who have tested positive are already in isolated care, according to Ministry of Health protocol.

"I'm going to be honest. We don't know how this happened. We have stringent protocols in place, including tests and quarantine requirements. We are very conservative in our approach," Clarke-Salloum said.

She said the company has started a "very deep investigation" to find the root cause. This could take several weeks but the intention is to share that report with all stakeholders, including the Health Ministry and other upstream operators, to reduce national risk.

"We can't see where the gap is. We don't know who patient zero is," she admitted.

All patients are well, she added and the company has reached out to staff and family members to offer support.