We identified a new type of heroes. In Libya, a country hard-pressed for continuous energy delivery, a formidable group of FieldCore field services employees braved gunfire and militia street battles to help power up hospitals and other emergency equipment, as well as keep hundreds and thousands of people cool in scorching summer temperatures as high as 45°C (118°F).
Faced with long, repeated power blackouts triggered by damage to power plants and infrastructure, the people of Libya suffer great anguish – especially in the searing summer weather. So in July 2021 at the start of the country’s hottest months, our heroes emerged.
On top of confronting COVID-19 challenges in Libya, our multinational field services team in the Middle East and Africa region got caught up in the midst of heavy gunfire from militia groups. Stray bullets struck the hotel in which our team was staying – one bullet shattering the window of FieldCore team member. This forced the team to seek emergency shelter in the hotel’s basement before retreating to a safe house as fighting continued around the capital.
Declining the option to leave Libya without completing the outage at the Zawia Power Plant – one of the largest power plants located near Zawia City, 50 km West of Tripoli – our 19-person-strong team defied the danger and bullets flying around them as they courageously chose to stay and help the Libyans by putting nearly 170 MW back to grid.
The team mobilized and navigated extreme uncertainty to deliver strong on customer expectations and with zero EHS incidents.