MOSCOW/LAGOS/LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted upkeep at oil and gas tasks and refineries from Russia’s Far East to the coast of Canada, storing up issues for an industry currently reeling from plunging prices, analysts state.
FILE PHOTO: Engineers talk as they stand beside pipes to be used for a pipeline that is part of the Sakhalin-2 job, some 220 km (137 miles) north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island October 12,2006 REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA)/ File Picture
Lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19, the flu-like infection triggered by the virus, have snarled the supply of extra parts and have actually prevented upkeep workers from doing their task.
Routine repair work are needed to keep wells pumping, pipelines and refineries operating and ships moving. Without upkeep, the threat of problems or unexpected blackouts increases and delays risk driving up the cost of work later on – partially because there will be a rush to do maintenance when lockdowns reduce, and partly because plants have lost the optimum timing and weather for work during the northern hemisphere spring.
” When the virus and the quarantine procedures have been alleviated and it is safe to get back to work, it does not indicate the exact same work can be made with the same intensity due to the fact that the weather windows could be missed out on and that can push upkeep even to the next year,” said Matthew Fitzsimmons, Vice President of the Oilfield Service group at research study firm Rystad.
In the meantime, companies which service the oil industry are being struck by the absence of work.
” A lot of service business are not getting the earnings they had actually otherwise anticipated in2020 That is going to have a substantial influence on the health of the service industry,” stated Fitzsimmons.
A SIGNIFICANT HEADACHE
Oil and gas business involved in expedition and production spent an average of $80 billion a year on mainte