Successful shutdown season despite worldwide pandemic

A large fleet of Mammoet equipment and personnel have returned home as Mammoet Canada wraps up a busy season of shutdown projects. Our team recognized that the energy industry cannot stop, and therefore showed the dedication to work around the clock, making sure products continued to flow during unusual maintenance procedures.

Throughout 2020, Mammoet assisted in 11 shutdowns, many of which are extensive oil-producing facilities. Planning for these shutdowns was undertaken months ahead of their start dates.

Everything came together during the breakout of the global pandemic COVID19, which created many unforeseen challenges, including delays and new PPE requirements. Through the quick reactions of supporting staff and buy-in from the supervisors and operators with their boots on the ground, sites could implement suitable safety measures to promote a safe atmosphere for all involved.

To ensure that production continued throughout this period, Mammoet was able to utilize its position as the owner of the largest fleet of heavy lift equipment in the world to deploy its equipment between projects such as each was always adequately served.

Leading the organization of the turnarounds, and navigating through difficult times, was a team of four women: Tanya Gairdner (shutdown lead for Edmonton), Tennille Wood (shutdown lead for Fort McMurray), Catherine Kelly, and Kim O’Hara (HR and recruitment). The team provided support for operators during recruitment, initial site placement, movement to new sites, work scope completion, and end-of-season layoffs. Despite the pandemic, the group flawlessly adjusted to further demands for off-site orientations, varied availability, and coordination of all planning in a remote setting.

With some turnarounds taking nearly a year to execute, including pre and post-projects, Mammoet provided just under 200 cranes with a 275-strong team of operators and supervisors combined.

Mammoet continues to work closely with its clients to reduce schedules and optimize the use of on-site resources by carefully planning project work simultaneously as shutdown work. This minimizes the costs associated with mobilization and increases efficiencies by appropriately sizing the required crane fleets to handle the work scopes.

Over many decades, Mammoet has built up extensive experience managing and executing shutdown activities worldwide, using practical, industry-specific expertise to carry out a safe and efficient execution.