Total's UK Culzean facility has suspected coronavirus case

London — Total said Tuesday it had a suspected case of coronavirus on a rig at its Culzean gas field in the UK North Sea, but production was unaffected.

A morning helicopter flight to change crew members at the gas facility was cancelled when the suspected case became apparent, a spokesman said. "We are monitoring the situation and working closely with Maersk Drilling," which operates the rig, the spokesman said.

Culzean came on line in the middle of last year and is a major source of gas for the UK, with a maximum output capacity of 16 million cu m/d at present.

It feeds gas to the Teesside processing plant in Northeast England.

The issue of helicopter flights to facilities with suspected coronavirus cases is emerging as a significant issue for the North Sea industry in the current health crisis, with helicopter providers reluctant to serve such facilities.

So far, no cases of coronavirus in the UK offshore workforce have been publicly confirmed, although this may be due to a lack of testing capacity.