2Performance Review & Impact
Throughout 2021, the continuing challenging circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been observed globally, and SBM Offshore’s priority has continued to be the health and safety of its staff and contractors, along with ensuring safe operations across all the Company’s activities. The global task force, in place since 2020, has continued to monitor the situation, on a daily basis, across all locations worldwide. Mental health support initiatives as well as a vaccination promotion campaign have been rolled out to mitigate some of the effects or consequences of the virus for individuals and collectivity.
As the pandemic evolved, the Company witnessed improvements in the general operating environment, especially though the reduction in quarantine requirements, for offshore personnel in particular, towards the end of the year, which had a positive impact on fatigue management and associated operational risk, as the vaccination rates increased worldwide. The rise of the Omicron variant in Q4 2021/early 2022 led further revision of protocols for offshore populations.
OVERALL IMPACT
Looking at SBM Offshore’s performance on the Material Topics explained in section 2.1, SBM Offshore feels confident it was able to live up to stakeholder expectations. Moreover, SBM Offshore has been able to balance ongoing business with a global response to COVID-19 and its economic impact.
For clients SBM Offshore was able to deliver operational excellence and quality and demonstrate solid economic performance − both in SBM Offshore’s projects and fleet, which also benefitted SBM Offshore’s partners in co-owned companies. SBM Offshore is proud to have achieved a strong health, safety and security performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For employees, it has been a challenging year where SBM Offshore needed to manage an increased work load and a need to raise efficiency. SBM Offshore maintained an open communication line to employees during this challenging time, remaining focused on the development of people while giving increased attention to mental health and well-being, as explained in section 2.1.5.
SBM Offshore has been able to finance projects while maintaining an open dialogue on ESG performance with key lenders. An enhanced supplier-collaboration approach, explained under 2.1.4, is benefiting SBM Offshore’s vendors and yards. The integrated approach of SBM Offshore led to shareholder value in 2021.
Beyond this, SBM Offshore has made significant steps forward regarding the energy transition, in its approach to reducing emissions and further investing in renewable energy.
In summary, 2021 has been a challenging year for the world, and SBM Offshore is no exception. COVID-19 keeps posing risks and challenges to the business and has caused operational disruptions and well-being impacts. SBM Offshore is involved in multiple large-scale ocean infrastructure projects, has ambitions to succeed in the energy transition and wants to achieve healthy financial returns at the same time. Balancing these various elements in a time of disruption has tested the organization and its stakeholders once again. Nonetheless, SBM Offshore has been able to maintain operations and a solid performance against targets set at the beginning of the year. Overall, SBM Offshore is a company with solid market positioning, a robust backlog generating long-term cashflow, a strong operational track record and the ability to leverage its experience and capabilities to play an active role in energy transition.