Restart of construction of the PMRT will be carried out under strict occupational health and safety protocols

The construction works of the Talara Refinery Modernization Project (PMRT), suspended since last March 16, will resume gradually and progressively, upon completion of the corresponding procedures that guarantee compliance with all the surveillance, prevention and control measures of COVID -19 arranged by the National Government, by PETROPERU and its contractors. This was stated by the General Manager of the state company, Carlos Barrientos Gonzáles, in dialogue with journalists from Talara.

Barrientos Gonzáles reported that the "Surveillance, Prevention and Control Plan for COVID-19 at work" of the PMRT has already been approved in the Integrated System for COVID-19 (SISCOVID-19) of the Ministry of Health. Currently, PMRT contractor and subcontractor companies are managing their own plans, in accordance with current procedures. The restart date will be reported in a timely and transparent manner, said the official.

"We are going to demand that contractors and subcontractors strictly comply with the approved biosafety protocols, so that the project minimizes any focus of contagion," he said, indicating that the first works to be resumed gradually and progressively will be in critical areas, with an average of 2,000 people, who will begin their work after going through a rapid test to discard COVID-19.

He specified that for the resumption of activities, the summons of the personnel who had been working in the PMRT at the beginning of the State of National Emergency and that has passed the quarantine period in the city of Talara will be prioritized.

Hospital with ICU

Barrientos Gonzales noted that as part of PETROPERU's commitment to Talara, a Modular Hospital will be donated, which will have a 400-square-meter hospital area and fully equipped to provide timely care to moderate and severe patients affected by COVID-19.

"The Modular Hospital that will come into operation at the end of July will be of great help because it implements an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that is currently not available in Talara," he noted.

The modern facility, which will have a useful life of 15 years, will be implemented with 30 beds for hospitalization of moderate COVID-19 patients and 15 beds to attend to seriously ill patients requiring ICU care. It will have modern medical equipment that includes pulmonary ventilators, automatic defibrillators, electrocardiographs, a central monitor for multiple beds and LED screens to visualize the vital signs of patients, among others.

"In this way we are contributing to the work carried out by MINSA and ESSALUD, institutions responsible for the administration of health services," said Barrientos Gonzales.

The operation and maintenance of the Modular Hospital will be in charge of ESSALUD, an institution that will assume the provision of professional and technical personnel, as well as supplies and medicines for the treatment of COVID-19. It is important to mention that, due to the health emergency that the country is going through, the establishment will be available to all patients with COVID-19 in Talara and will not limit its attention to only insured patients.

In order to contribute to the control of the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, PETROPERU previously donated five thousand rapid test kits for the control of contagion and more than 25,000 biosafety implements for the medical personnel of the Health Center II "Carlos Vivanco Mauricio” of this city.

Likewise, it has provided, as a loan, 22 10-m³ oxygen balloons thanks to the contracting companies of the Talara Refinery Modernization Project and has been providing food service for medical personnel who have worked long hours, which will be maintained during the State of National Emergency.