A worker who was flown off the Hummingbird Spirit floating production, storage and offloading vessel in the UK central North Sea with suspected Covid-19 has since tested positive, vessel owner Teekay has confirmed.
Teekay said the person, described as a "third-party contractor", was evacuated from the FPSO on Sunday 29 March after presenting with flu-like symptoms.
“The person has now tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving the necessary medical treatment,” said a Teekay spokesperson.
No other details about the worker's condition were immediately available.
No other workers from the vessel have tested positive, Teekay said. The company would not confirm if there have been other suspected cases on board.
Production at the field has not been affected, Teekay said.
It is the second confirmed case of a North Sea worker testing positive for Covid-19.
Upstream broke the news last week that a seriously ill worker on the Bluewater-owned Aoka Mizu FPSO, operating on Hurricane Energy's Lancaster field, was taken to shore by emergency coastguard helicopter on Wednesday 25 March.
Teekay owns the Hummingbird Spirit FPSO, which on contract to Spirit Energy at the Chestnut field.
Day-to-day operations are carried out by Altera Infrastructure.
“The health and safety of all our employees remains our absolute priority,” the Teekay spokesperson said.
Teekay said as precaution any person on its FPSO who shows symptoms of Covid-19 will be flown back to shore.
“We continue to ensure ongoing operations are conducted safely and following Covid-19 guidelines set out by NHS Scotland, Health Protection Scotland and Oil & Gas Authority UK,” the spokesperson said.
Altera was known as Teekay Offshore Partners until January when its purchase by private equity group Brookfield Business Partners saw it exit the Teekay group of companies.
Spirit recently said it has completed the drilling of a new production well at Chestnut, where its parnter is Dana Petroleum, extending the life of that field by as much as three years.
First oil from the new well was achieved on 19 March at a cost of the £56 million ($68 million), which included a contract extension with Teekay for the Hummingbird Spirit FPSO.