Expats on a rig off western Australia have warned that safety would be compromised after Maersk Drilling was forced to “reassess” unpaid leave requests amid the country’s strict Covid regime.
The 17 expats, whose number includes people from Scotland and England, said the Danish firm’s new approach hit them “like a bomb”, sending morale down straight away” and diminishing the rig’s “safety culture”.
In an email to Energy Voice, the “tired and worn out” workers said these factors would “sooner or later” impact operations, which might lead to a “major accident”.
They are working on the Maersk Deliverer rig, which is carrying out an infill drilling campaign at Japanese firm Inpex’s Ichthys field.
According to the email, some of the crew members have not been home for a year in the wake of the Australian Government’s decision to close its borders to most people in March 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid.
In late August, they agreed to “sacrifice” their private lives and effectively relocate to Perth for six months, at their employer’s request.
Crew members have a four weeks on, four weeks off rota and spend their shore leave in accommodation rented by the company.
They were permitted to fly home for eight days every three to four months, before returning to Perth, WA, and spending two weeks in quarantine.
But on May 7 they received an email from Maersk Drilling — seen by Energy Voice — to say that the company would no longer be able to authorise previous unpaid leave requests and short trips home.
Maersk Drilling said finding people to cover for crew members was “very challenging” due to an increase in vessel activity in the area and government measures to reduce the number of people traveling to Perth.
The company said it deeply regretted that the situation had resulted in “a cancellation” of unpaid leave and short trips home requests.
The workers said their only options were to accept the situation or resign.
A spokesman for Maersk Drilling insisted that no periods of unpaid leave had been cancelled “at this point”.
The spokesman said the use of the word “cancellation” in the May 7 email was an “unfortunate miscommunication”.
He said the phrase “should be reconsidered”, which was also used in relation to the expats’ leave requests, conveyed the true meaning of the correspondence.
In addition, he said Maersk Drilling “highly appreciated” the crew’s commitment and pointed out that the company had managed to grant many requests for “relief outside normal shifts” during the pandemic.
But Maersk Drilling said “tightened” travel restrictions meant the company had been forced to “revisit” the rig’s plans for manning and “reassess” leave requests.
It regretted that it might not be possible to grant request for extraordinary unpaid leave that three of its crew members had submitted.
The spokesman added: “It should be emphasised that no periods of unpaid leave have been cancelled for anyone at this point, as we are still working out how to best handle the situation, including potentially moving the periods of unpaid leave to alternative dates.
“We have every intention to grant such requests whenever possible but have to make reservations that this may not always be the case.”