Techint Engineering & Construction is providing a range of operation and maintenance (O&M) services for oil production facilities and locations at Block CPO-13, lying in the municipality of Puerto Gaitán, Department of Meta, Colombia. The field is operated by Tecpetrol Colombia S.A.S. and has an average production of 12.5 KBPD.

Techint E&C has been working alongside Tecpetrol since 2018, when it began with the basic and detail engineering stage to build the Central Production Facilities (CPF) for oil dehydration and water treatment. This was followed by an operations and maintenance contract which runs until 2025.

The company is managing the new facilities and their associated auxiliary systems in compliance with international Occupational Health and Safety standards, and has so far notched up over 925 days without time lost due to accidents, which reflects the personal and collective commitment of all employees. “When we do things well, we all win,” points out William Vargas, the QHSE Supervisor, who adds that, “The main factor for our success in this sense is communication: we are all clear about the economic, operational, environmental, safety and other challenges we face on a daily basis. Preventive actions begin early, during interpersonal conversations at breakfast, or when we greet each other in passing in the hallways. Prevention is simply a part of everyday life.”

This safety targets reached so far act as a boost for the team to focus on continuous improvement. As William puts it, “We can’t stop at this milestone, as we have many more goals to be achieved and many risks to head off. The important thing here is to think about the preventive influence that each employee's family has on them, because it’s our families who are the main motivation for individual self-care."

To make sure that all the safety policies at the Pendare field are properly followed, the following initiatives are being carried out:

• Compliance with O&G sector standards.
• Prevention leadership training courses – preventive leadership audits.
• Training courses at all levels of the organization.
• Transmission of the company's values.
• Awareness-raising campaigns.

The objective is to apply, improve and innovate in operational discipline and process safety as well as in updating procedures. All this forms part of the Integrated Management System first introduced in January 2005, which has gradually improved over the years, achieving further optimization with the certification of ISO standards.

Today, the employees at the Pendare Field are aiming ever higher—and this applies to prevention as well. Congratulations all around!