ATPI Marine & Energy’s key role in emergency repatriation for Petrofac

The Background & The Challenge

The Background

Petrofac contacted ATPI Marine & Energy to ask for help evacuating approximately 300 of their staff from Algeria because of the security risk posed by the terrorist attack on the Amenas Gas Plant in mid January 2013.

Petrofac, a FTSE100 company, is a global leader in oilfield services. From seven operations centres, servicing 28 countries, it employs 18,200 people of 80 different nationalities. Petrofac is one of ATPI’s largest clients and is serviced by both our London and Aberdeen travel centers.

The
Challenge

Following Petrofac’s call, ATPI Marine & Energy learnt that their partner BP had chartered three planes to airlift the Petrofac workers and their own staff back to safety.

The flights were expected to arrive at Gatwick that evening (few other details were known at this stage). ATPI Marine & Energy’s role would be to provide on-site support and arrange onward transportation for the employees to their home nation as quickly as possible.

The Solution

Within an hour of the original call, ATPI Marine & Energy had established a disaster recovery team, with two senior employees, including the Petrofac Team Leader sent to Gatwick to accompany and support Petrofac’s Group Head of Security and UK Travel Manager.

Twelve other ATPI Marine & Energy employees were either mobilised as bookers or were on standby offsite. Since these events coincided with the expectation of heavy snow in the UK, it was integral that staff were not removed from ATPI’s 24/7 team, ensuring other travellers affected by the bad weather would receive maximum support.

During that first hour, ATPI Marine & Energy had also set up dedicated phone numbers to handle the emergency, plus a unique client account that would streamline the costs and administration of the emergency situation.

A meeting at Gatwick with BP and Home Office representatives revealed that a significant number of the Petrofac employees were foreign nationals with no legal right to ‘land’ in the UK.

Despite these challenges, ATPI Marine & Energy remained in a state of readiness, arranging airside passes for the Petrofac representatives, airline ground support at Gatwick and liaising with Petrofac and BP to obtain the passenger lists needed to book provisional onward travel.
Due to UK immigration obstacles, flights were diverted and one flight with Petrofac staff was detained in Palma whilst Petrofac and BP negotiated with UK officials.

The projected arrival time at Gatwick changed constantly. This meant onward reservations had to be frequently altered too, which included numerous individual flights, and travel for a group of 43 travellers to Dubai with onward international connections – negotiations continued through the night. Two of the planes were diverted to fly to Dubai and the third charter finally arrived in the middle of the second night.

The two ATPI Marine & Energy staff at Gatwick remained with the client until the last Petrofac employee boarded his onward flight more than two days after the original call for help.

ATPI’s UK General Manager and Petrofac’s Account Manager remained in regular contact throughout to ensure staffing levels were sufficient to handle the situation.

The Result

The supportive and efficient relationship between senior Petrofac management and the ATPI Marine & Energy team meant that emergency arrangements were set up with the least possible delay.

Throughout this fast moving emergency, ATPI Marine & Energy’s online booking tools

were used to provide instant schedule information for the everchanging requirements. Close, effective communication between Petrofac, the ATPI Marine & Energy representatives at Gatwick, the travel booking team and ATPI Marine & Energy’s global network of contacts delivered a highly responsive, flexible and supportive service to the client in very difficult circumstances.

"The ATPI team have been beyond excellent. I am very grateful for their input during the whole process. I see their personal standards and commitment to getting the job done, with little or no sleep for 72 hours, as going above and beyond anything we could have expected."