Lead Story
Supporting Local Communities During COVID-19
Schlumberger Locations Worldwide Contribute to their Communities
Schlumberger teams around the world quickly responded to help provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospitals and frontline healthcare providers.
From the first requests for PPE from local healthcare communities, employees approached the company for guidance on how to help.
Immediate action was taken by several of our facilities in France. “Our teams collaborated to identify available protective equipment to donate, and also to determine how to quickly produce other PPE using 3D printers to donate to healthcare providers,” notes Roland Renaud, health, safety and environment (HSE) leader for Schlumberger in France.
The company’s engineering community put their expertise into practice to create and test prototype PPE for healthcare workers. The manufacturing of PPE was initiated on the company’s 3D printers, with additional production of parts done by employees who have their own 3D printers at home.
Workspaces at technology centers in France were dedicated to the assembly of protective face shields, for example, by the fiber optics team at the Schlumberger Riboud Product Center. In addition, Schlumberger engineers printed a door-opening device that enables nurses to avoid direct contact with door handles in the hospital. The additive manufacturing team in Sugar Land, Texas also used their 3D printers towards making face shields for healthcare providers.
At other locations the company provided material to make PPE using 3D printing. For example, in Ecuador, material was provided to a community organization for the 3D printing of protective face shields.
An enterprising employee from the Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre (SCR) in Cambridge, UK, used their own 3D printers at home to manufacture face shield components to help UK healthcare workers. The employee reports that “I have produced headbands for over 300 face shields and the SCR has donated materials that will enable production of approximately 500 more that will be donated to doctors, nurses and healthcare providers through a local supplier coordinating the sterilization and assembly of the PPE.”
Meanwhile, employees at company locations worldwide organized donations of PPE to hospitals, industry safety organizations, and local authorities. For example, in Ecuador, France, India, Italy, Norway, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia, and the United States, donations have included thousands of items of PPE including disposable coveralls, safety glasses, gloves, hand sanitizer, masks, face shields, stretchers, and disposable thermometer protectors.
The M-I SWACO team in Broussard, Louisiana, used part of their manufacturing facility to produce over 2,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer has been distributed to frontline responders in local communities and was also deployed to our operations. Learn more about this initiative here.
At the Cameron facility in Béziers, France, personal protection equipment kits were created specifically for employees whose spouses are visiting nurses to help them call on their patients safely. Each kit includes PPE such as face masks, safety goggles, disposable coveralls, disinfectant and hand sanitizer. Personal protection kits have also been assembled by the team in Ecuador. Schlumberger employees at facilities worldwide are continuing to respond to calls from their local communities on how to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Almost a year after the first COVID-19 lockdown, many schools remained closed, and there was an increased need for computers for online schooling. Employees at facilities in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States arranged with the company’s IT department for several hundred laptops to be refurbished and donated to local education organizations for distribution to families in need.
In India, as the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak emerged, employees rallied to raise funds to support NGOs to provide healthcare staff in local communities with PPE kits and medical equipment such as ventilators and oxygen tanks.
"The crisis is of such magnitude you can't just be a spectator,” says Mohamed Kermoud, vice president of HSE at Schlumberger. “I feel very proud of the way our employees have come together to help, and to support local healthcare workers in the communities where we live and work.”
Learn about our virus outbreak management plan and explore helpful resources here.