YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria’s petroleum regulator has ordered oil and gas companies to reduce their offshore workforce and move to 28-day staff rotations as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to a circular seen by Reuters.

A man walks inside a new isolation and treatment centre at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (formerly Onikan Stadium), erected as an additional measure to handle the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Lagos, Nigeria March 27, 2020. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja
Health experts fear a widespread outbreak in Africa’s most populous country, which has about 200 million inhabitants, and the country is keen to protect oil production, which provides 90% of much-needed foreign exchange.

A coronavirus case on an offshore rig could spread quickly among workers and have a potentially devastating impact on production.

Sarki Auwalu, director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, said that only staff on essential duties would be allowed to travel to offshore or remote locations.

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“Non-essential staff currently at offshore/remote locations should be withdrawn with immediate effect,” he said in a statement.

Nigeria, which has 97 confirmed coronavirus cases, has shut international airports, closed all land borders and imposed curbs on cargo vessels allowed to dock at its ports in an effort to contain the outbreak.

Rivers State, in which Port Harcourt serves as the hub of Nigeria’s oil industry, closed its own borders to human traffic this week.

Oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria have previously said that the health and safety of workers was their top priority.



Industry sources said that a number of oil companies had already shifted from 14-day rotations to 28 days. Some are also implementing a 14-day quarantine for workers before they leave for rigs.

Oil prices have fallen by two thirds since the start of the year, which has forced Nigeria to cut its budget and prompted oil companies to reduce their spending plans.

Reporting by Tife Owolabi; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Libby George; Editing by David Goodman

https://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN21G0I7-OZABS

Good measures. Coronavirus has no respect for anyone.

I believe this will end very soon and it'll be like nothing happened. April 6th.

Some installations have ceased production while a majority of places are down to the barest minimum. The places I’m familiar with claim they’ll stop production once one or two problems occur due to a lack of regular maintenance.

Once oil stop flowing we are in for it.

I learnt it cost $20 to produce a barrel, we now sell for $23

How do we cope without oil in Nigeria

iwaeda:
Once oil stop flowing we are in for it.

Not really. Every other country is also in for it, so things will remain business as usual. Petroleum is at it’s lowest selling price point in history and the government claims once the price goes any lower or stays the same for an extended period we’ll shut down production completely.

iwaeda:
How do we cope without oil in Nigeria

Oil is our major but not only resource in the country. The country will survive and probably prosper without black gold.