4 minute read
Essential oil
Early in the pandemic, workers in the oil & gas sector were among the first to be deemed “essential.”
While maintaining operations to ensure the flow of production was critical, the safety and well-being of its people remained Tundra’s primary focus since field operators do not have the option to work from home.
“More than 100 operators in southwest Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan had to continue working in the field despite the stay-at-home order because this is a 24-hours-per-day, 365-days-per-year business,” says Craig Lane, Tundra’s Vice President of Production Operations. “Even during a global lockdown, we had a responsibility to maintain business as usual.”
Sinclair Field Lead Operator Lonnie Brown says that in his 10 years working at Tundra, he has not encountered such a challenge.
“Our industry has had its share of peaks and valleys. Most of us are used to dealing with change, but no one was expecting a situation like COVID-19 that affected all of us at work and home. Early on, fear of the unknown seemed to be the biggest concern, especially with the risk of bringing an infectious disease home to the family. But the more you learned, the more you felt at ease,” Brown says.
“Tundra did the right thing by reacting quickly and as early as possible. There was good communication from the start, and they’ve stayed the course, checking in frequently, answering questions, modifying procedures, and providing masks and sanitizers. It went a long way to help alle-Tundra’s Steven Gray.
Tundra’s Deanna Joyce. Tundra’s Taylor Wilkinson.
viate any anxiety people were experiencing, so we felt safer coming to work.”
At the start of the pandemic, Tundra President Jane Mactaggart assembled a multidisciplinary COVID-19 response team that met weekly to discuss the quickly evolving situation, develop safety guidelines in accordance with public health orders, and plan the company’s most effective actions in the worst-case scenario.
“We quickly identified critical tasks required to maintain our base business,” explains Darren Vande Graaf, Vice President, Development Operations. “Teams were created to evaluate extreme event scenarios and develop contingency plans around increased or unexpected absenteeism,” he says, adding that having three geographically distinct offices in Calgary, Virden, and Winnipeg was an inherent advantage in the separation of critical people.
Vande Graaf credits the collaboration between the safety and operations teams in maintaining safe working conditions in the field.
“The Safety group has worked hard to build a strong safety culture with open, trusting lines of communication, which proved essential in keeping our people safe and informed,” he says. “At the same time, the execution and diligence of the operations team to adjust their processes, buy-in to revised or new safety requirements, and keep our field operations running were critical.”
Tundra was able to purchase mass quantities of hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, three-ply non-medical masks, and other face covering options to keep operators safe – and, as it turned out, protect other essential workers in the community as well.
“During early stages of the pandemic when there were shortages of personal protective equipment in rural hospitals, we were able to donate some of our extra N95 masks to the hospital in Virden, Manitoba and local EMTs for their ongoing protection,” says Ryan Potter, Tundra’s Manager of Health and Safety. A huge component of Tundra’s safety program is its mental health initiatives − especially important in rural areas where such resources are limited. Recognizing the added pressures faced by employees and their families, Director of Human Resources Kim Mowat coordinated dozens of mental health awareness resources, including virtual presentations related to social isolation, self-care, parenting issues, relaxation techniques, dealing with grief, and many other related themes.
“What we all thought would be a couple of weeks has stretched into a year and a half, but Tundra is still on top of the situation and reminding us about the importance of taking care of each other,” says Brown. v
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