Tullow oil has said it has experience of managing infectious diseases of like the coronavirus (COVID-19) following the significant contingency planning put in place during the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014.

The multinational oil firm said the health and safety of Tullow’s staff continues to be the Group’s top priority and Tullow continues to carefully monitor the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tullow has experience of managing infectious diseases of this nature following the significant contingency planning put in place during the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014. In our principal offices, Tullow staff are currently working from home in line with Host Government guidelines with negligible disruption to the business,” the company said in a statement.

Tullow noted that production operations in West Africa have not been affected by COVID-19 as yet.

In addition to the existing Infectious Disease mitigation plans already in place, Tullow is requiring all personnel to self-isolate in Ghana for two weeks before transferring to our FPSOs to ensure that the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak offshore is minimised.

In the event that a case of COVID-19 is discovered offshore, robust mitigation and personnel evacuation plans are in place to ensure that the impact of any outbreak is minimised and operations are maintained.

Ghana’s case count has reached 214 with five deaths.