Danny Cedotal. PVC production manager at Shinteh, Inc.
The Louisiana Chemical Association and Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance recently convened a web panel of plant managers from Louisiana's capital region to discuss the effects of COVID-19 on their policies, procedures, products, personnel and outlook.
"The thing that we did that made the most difference was moving quickly and decisively," said Tim Harris, site manager at Eastman Chemical. "I think the industry was the first to move. And I think we all move at about the same pace."
The evidence, so far, is that the industry's approach seems to be working. Dave Luecke, plant manager of the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Chemical Plant, said he's been monitoring the rate of new cases in the workforce, and found the spread amongst the plant's population mirrored the community's rates. This at least confirms that, so far, his workforce has not been at an increased risk in the workplace.
One thing Danny Cedotal, PVC production manager at Shintech, is proudest of is that the new cases within his site's staff appear to have been the result of community spread, not workplace exposure.
As Harris said, most industry moves at about the same pace, which results in similar protocols being enacted at each site, even if some of the reasoning and methodology differ. The most common measures in place are personnel temperature checks upon arrival at the facility, social distancing, disinfection of shared surfaces and required face coverings when social distancing is not possible.
"I don't think there are protocols that stop the spread 100 percent," Cedotal said.
Luecke followed up, "What we were trying to avoid was someone with COVID-19 taking out an entire shift team."
Even though the procedures and protocols implemented have had some success to date, the three managers agreed that one of the greatest hurdles is not the efficacy of the measures put into place; rather, achieving compliance from the workforce has proven especially difficult.
"People would start to work 6 feet apart, then they'd migrate to where they were 2 or 3 feet apart without a mask," Luecke said.
At Eastman, Harris reported that PPE comfort has played a big part in achieving strong levels of compliance. "We are having an internal debate about whether buffs are good enough as a face covering," Harris said. "What we're finding is some of the cooling effect [of buffs] is very beneficial and we get good compliance."
Another step taken at seemingly every site has been the implementation of working from home.
"Everybody who can is working from home," Harris said. "I don't see that ending any time soon."
Similarly, in the beginning, Shintech sent a lot of people home who weren't critical to operations. "Some of our supporting groups, such as purchasing or HR or other areas that aren't geared toward day-to-day operations and activities, are working modified schedules, but everybody's coming to work at least some of the time," Cedotal said.
At ExxonMobil, Luecke said employees have also worked with different remote scheduling arrangements.
"For the office-based people, we did four phases. At first, we went down to critical staff, which is about 25 percent of the people in the office. As the state started opening up, we went to 50 percent, then to 75 percent." But when the number of new cases began rising drastically in the summer months, Luecke explained, the plant went back down to 25 percent and stayed at that level, consistent with local and state infection rates.
"I think we've learned that with working from home and remotely, it's possible to still be productive. But you lose a lot when you're not in the office, so I think we'll see the balance there," Harris predicted.
Another variable to factor into each facility's pandemic planning is addressing new arrivals and visitors to the site, including contractors.
In the initial stages of the shutdown at Shintech, Cedotal explained, "We did reduce the number of contractors on-site. Since then, we've gone back to just about the same place we were at prior to the shutdown with the policies and protocols."
Down the road at ExxonMobil, Luecke said his facility may even refuse visitors from outbreak hot spots, although this is not currently the case.
The effect on contractors has been a reduction in their projects, matching production reductions commensurate to the companies they serve. How contractors will be affected in the future is both unknown and subject to market forces.
"Initially, we saw a very large drop-off in domestic demand and export international demand," Cedotal said. "We did make the key decision to proceed with the expansion projects we had underway, at the normal pace and on the normal, pre-COVID-19 schedule. Those projects underway are multiphase projects, so I could definitely foresee a delay in the second and third phases of these projects, depending on what the markets do."
The post-pandemic future of industry
Although each plant manager was careful to articulate that they were unsure of what the future ultimately holds for industry, they uniformly expressed hope and optimism.
While many projects are on hold or may be placed on hold in the future, Cedotal, Harris and Luecke all agreed their companies are planning for an eventual resumption of full operations, although that progress may be slow. The greatest unknown is simply that no one knows when that will happen.
"What we see in the longer term is that the demand for our products will be there," Luecke said. "The population of the world will grow, and there will be more people moving into the middle class, which means there will be a demand for energy and petrochemicals. That long-term growth will continue."
Harris added, "We all wish we had a crystal ball."
Progress toward the resumption of operations is tied to the day-to-day status of the pandemic. The faster communities recover, the faster plants will bring staff back on-site and the faster capital projects will resume.
Luecke recommended, "If I was to give some advice to contractors, it would be that you need to position yourself to survive where we currently are, but be ready for when the comeback occurs. When things start ramping back up, be ready to take advantage of that.
"It will get better, we just don't know exactly when."
Luecke then reflected on the positive aspects that have come from the pandemic.
"We've seen an increased presence in the community, helping out those who are less fortunate," Luecke said. "It's been really tremendous to watch and see everybody supporting each other."
Echoing Luecke's sentiment, Harris said, "We're one team; we'll get through it."
