China has several oil and gas fields with high concentration of toxic H2S gas. Exploration and production in these fields is a high risk operation which requires strong focus on safety. PetroChina is the largest oil company in China and the company is responsible for most of the high risk production. After a major accident in 2003, Uniteam and PetroChina started discussions about use of containerized H2S protection shelters in high risk sites.

If a major H2S emission happens, the workers would normally evacuate the site and wait for an emergency team to arrive to stop the gas emission. The consequence was that uncontrolled H2S emissions could continue for days before it was stopped. In several cases the uncontrolled emission has lead to causalities among workers and local population.

After PetroChina started using Uniteam H2S shelters, the workers can enter the shelter to be equipped with personal protection equipment and start working immediately to stop emissions. The shelters is a gas safe place which works both as control room and resting area for the staff in site when they are working with stopping the gas leak. In this way the time to stop the uncontrolled emission has been reduced dramatically and this saves lives of workers and local population.

Uniteam are supplying both mobile shelters for drilling crews and stationary shelters for H2S separation plants. The smallest mobile shelter is based on a 20ft container which protects 10 persons in 2 hours. Our largest shelters based on several 40ft containers connected together protect 1500 persons.

As China is continuing to invest heavily to develop its oil and gas resources, Uniteam and PetroChina are set to continue its safety cooperation for many years to come.