It seems almost impossible to overestimate the impact the coronavirus pandemic had across every corner of the globe in 2020. The virus impacted our employees, communities, operations, offices and influenced many of the decisions made by ConocoPhillips. During the unprecedented event, our people worked to ensure business continuity and to support and sustain our global workforce, communities and health care professionals. Thousands of ConocoPhillips employees and contractors worked from home for several months and thousands more practiced social distancing out in the field. All were focused on our core job: to safely find and deliver energy to the world.
“Throughout our global operations everything we did came from our core values: protect our people, mitigate the spread of the virus and safely run the business. Our workforce stepped up. People aligned, activated plans and communicated. Our people got the job done while protecting themselves and others,” said ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance.
As a result, we continue to deliver the oil and natural gas essential to keep society running through the ongoing pandemic.
Protecting People
Our Crisis Management Support Team (CMST) was activated in early March 2020 to facilitate the COVID-19 response and remains active today. Following our pre-determined framework for emergency preparedness, the team initially met daily to review overall pandemic status updates and critical information from the business units and functions, and prioritize the daily actions for the CMST. The cross-functional team continues to meet regularly to share information and coordinate activities with the business units who manage local responses. Updates are provided to the Executive Leadership Team and to the Board of Directors on a regular basis. In addition, business units also created COVID Response groups to properly implement virus mitigation protocols in field locations. The CMST and leads from business unit operations around the world also meet regularly to share knowledge and best practices.
Non-essential office workers in all locations, including our Houston headquarters, worked from home for portions of the pandemic. As our workforce adjusted to remote work, our IT team ensured we were able to run the business remotely and trained us to navigate the new virtual environment. Building closures and phased re-openings are managed locally, with best practices shared globally. As offices reopened, we adopted rigorous mitigation measures, including temperature checks, contact tracing, social distancing guidance, face covering requirements and enhanced cleaning protocols. In Houston, a phased return-to-office plan was implemented to safely reopen ConocoPhillips headquarters.
“This approach allows the CMST to monitor the trajectory of new COVID-19 cases in our community, while ensuring the smooth implementation of additional health and safety measures, such as temperature checks, social distancing, face-covering requirements and heightened cleaning measures,” offered CMST leader, Trond-Erik Johansen, ConocoPhillips vice president of HSE. Employees with coronavirus related health or family circumstances that prevented them from coming back full-time were given temporary flexibility.
In the field, non-essential deferment decisions are also made to safely limit the number of workers onsite. At some worksites, onsite staff was temporarily reduced to “essential only” and crew change logistics were modified to limit exposure, while ensuring adherence to safety maintenance schedules and continuous production.
Operational Impact
The energy landscape also changed dramatically in early 2020 with simultaneous demand and supply shocks, partly due to the pandemic, that caused oil prices to collapse. We closely monitored the market and took prudent actions in response to this situation. This included safely curtailing significant production at the height of the downturn and bringing it back online later.
Some of our actions:
- U.S. Lower 48: Roughly 1,800 wells and over 100 gas compressors were shut down and restored. About 500 surface tanks and 150 miles of pipelines were preserved through treatments.
- Alaska: Operations were significantly scaled back. Nearly 2,000 personnel were demobilized from the North Slope. This included ending the 2020 exploration and appraisal program early and laying down all rigs. Approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) of production was also curtailed in a closed loop arctic environment that involved shutting in about 300 wells.
- Canada: One central processing facility was shut-in for several months, production from multiple well pads was minimized or shut in and turnaround activities were rescheduled. At its lowest point, our workforce was minimized by almost 60% and production was reduced by almost 75%, requiring work plans to be adjusted and projects to be executed with fewer resources onsite.
- Norway: Operations activities were reduced during the initial phase of the pandemic by approximately 25% offshore and 70% at the Teesside terminal to ensure social distancing.
- Australia: All non-essential Australia Pacific LNG personnel were required to work from home and two major maintenance shutdowns of the facility, originally planned for 2020 and 2021, were each deferred by a year, requiring significant rescheduling of equipment and people. All LNG contracted cargos were delivered, even with a 14-day quarantine required by government.
- Indonesia: Field operations were placed in semi-lockdown mode and production capacity maintained while minimizing non-routine activity and personnel.
Supporting Employees
When the pandemic hit, ConocoPhillips immediately set up an internal employee resource website to address common questions and provide information about preventive actions and links to external COVID resources. Throughout the pandemic, we continued to update the website with the latest information available. A robust internal communications regimen included regular email updates from leaders, detailed Frequently Asked Questions documents and videos from our CEO and our chief medical officer. Supervisors were given guidance on managing remote teams, leading change and the role of workplace flexibility. Senior leaders have hosted virtual town halls and small group engagements to provide updates and answer employee questions.
Globally, employee health and wellness benefits were enhanced to assist employees, including an increased focus on our Employee Assistance Program and mental wellness programs and expanded use of time-off policies for COVID-19 reasons. A “Journey to Calm” video series was introduced to provide tips on how to reduce stress and improve mental health. In the U.S., temporary changes were put in place to waive deductibles and/or co-insurance for telehealth services and COVID-19 treatment. COVID-19 testing costs and preventative vaccinations remain 100% covered and home delivery of prescription medications is offered at no charge to employees. We also adopted the CARES Act savings plan withdrawals and loans provisions to provide additional flexibility to current and former employees.
Working with Communities
In 2020, ConocoPhillips business units and employees donated over $1.3 million in much-needed relief aid, food and medical supplies to area hospitals and first responders. Read more about our pandemic-related giving.
The importance of engaging with stakeholders in communities near our operations has also been amplified. Read more about those efforts.
“This pandemic has touched every community in some form or fashion. As members of the larger global community, we must all work together to help fight this deadly disease,” Lance said.