COVID-19! Business as Usual in the Rigless Operations: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Last year, the oil and gas industry was hit with one of the biggest challenges in the history of the industry — COVID-19. This has been a pandemic no one imagined would cripple the whole world and threaten our very existence. It caused an imbalance to the oil supply and demand where the global oil market had more than it could use or store, which drove oil prices to a record low. Despite this, projects in development have to be completed to accommodate the future rise in demand that is expected to occur after the pandemic. This paper will showcase how the rigless operations in Saudi Arabia in the oil and gas fields managed to continue with their activities toward tackling this challenge by capitalizing on two main principles. The first principle was business continuity management; preparing a strategic and operational framework to actively increase resilience to prevent suspension of the rigless operations or services, and thereby fulfilling the industry demand and preventing a cash flow interruption to the stakeholders. The second principle was the risk management process (RMP); identifying, monitoring, and managing all risks related to COVID-19, which minimized, and in some cases eliminated, its impact on the rigless operations. Both principles were the main pillars to first preserve lives and second to assure business continuity, which resulted in the continuation of the rigless operation and the profitability under the COVID-19 challenge for the company. COVID-19 was a risk no one accounted for. It was a true test to business continuity management and the risk management process. The integration of both processes in the oil industry, and specifically in rigless operations for the first time due to this pandemic, was essential to overcome the COVID-19 crises in addition to tailoring specific steps to address this challenge. Therefore, the rigless operations continued with planned activities while preserving people's lives.