BACKGROUND:

Among the oil companies in the world, Chevron Texaco is today one of the biggest. They explore for oil, and they pipe, refine and process it. They also work with other combustibles and fuels.

Chevron Texaco has operations in practically all the countries of the world. One of its principal missions, on a daily basis, is to prevent any type of accident or incident related to the security of its employees, associates, clients, assets and installations. In their own words: safety and security. To achieve this, Chevron Texaco, is guided by global security policies of high and strict standards. These policies function world wide for all the subsidiaries and affiliates.

Knowing all this, Chevron Texaco represented a great objective for any professional security company. Based on this challenge, ProTechTeam decided to obtain the contract for security service, knowing well that few companies can meet this challenge. After getting acquainted, making presentations, making a formal proposal, and continuing negotiations, the objective was reached. A service contract for the security of Chevron Texaco.

THE INITIAL CONTACTS:

With their main offices in Guatemala, sometime at the beginning of 2001, ProTechTeam approached Chevron Texaco through contacts with some of their most important executives in Guatemala. ProTechTeam met with them several times and introduced to them a biographical account of the company, its background, capacity and the advantages and competitive benefits that very few companies like ProTechTeam could offer. During these occasions, what stood out the most was the experience of everyone at ProTechTeam, the knowledge, ability, and skills in the field of physical, electronic, and industrial security. Additionally, behind all the operations, was the support of a professional organization.

THE APPROACH:

After the first visits and encounters, apparently, the talks slowed down and it seemed as though Chevron Texaco had lost interest. More than a year went by. ProTechTeam continued to insist on negotiations related to security.

Chevron Texaco was having a series of problems in safety and security at all the sites in Guatemala. Unfortunately, the company that rendered these services was not complying with what was expected from it and did not offer viable solutions to the problem at hand. The statistics of incidents or accidents related to safety and security in the different sites increased. The service stations were experiencing many holdups and robberies. The fuel trucks were being highjacked and robbed en route to deliver the load. In a few instances there were fuel leaks at the company’s plants throughout Guatemala. This was very dangerous and noxious for the entire region. After analyzing the situation, a decision was finally taken and a process of change was initiated.

THE PROCESS OF SELECTION AND CHANGE:

About the middle of 2002, Chevron Texaco showed interest in the matter. They invited twelve of the biggest companies in the market to bid for the contract.

THE EVALUATION:

Every company presented its best qualities. Chevron Texaco formed an international committee headed by the Global Security Manager. The committee evaluated and reviewed all the attributes of each of the participating companies, including their price quotes. The Global Security Manager traveled to Guatemala and evaluated all the proposals and presentations.

FINAL EVALUATION:

Nine out of the twelve companies were eliminated. Among the remaining three companies was ProTechTeam.

THE SELECTION:

Once again the entire committee including the Global Security Manager reviewed even the smallest details. They visited each one of the competing companies and each of the places that were using the services of these companies.

The committee decided to pick one of the three companies to provide the services for the coming years.

THE RESULT:

The decision was made and ProTechTeam was selected to face the challenge, and to increase the level of safety and security of one of the biggest international companies, Chevron Texaco. The contract was signed and also started one of the strongest commercial relations and experiences that either company has had.

The first incidents and security problems did not wait. The initial actions of ProTechTeam were to recommend and prevent these incidents.

Based on the security study previously prepared, the recommendations were:

• Detailed examination of the closed circuit television equipment that was obsolete and some instances useless.
• Improve the security around the perimeter of some sites.
• Improve the lighting of other sites.
• Re-engineer the security procedures and risk prevention and improve them.
• To improve the equipment and the industrial security procedures.
• To change some of the fire alarms, and alarms against holdups and robberies at various sites.
• To change the procedures of access control and to improve them.
• To improve the information security.
• To hire special personnel to protect the executives of Chevron Texaco living in Guatemala.
• To install a system of digital CCTV in all the service stations in case of hold ups or other incidents.
• To implement procedures to minimize the amount of money the cashier should handle and to make frequent cuts and deposit it in the vault.
• The personnel were instructed not to resist a hold up especially if the individual is armed, in order to prevent harm or loss of life.
• To place visible signs indicating that the company was not responsible for theft or damage to vehicles left in the exterior parking areas. Also, signs prohibiting the entry of persons carrying guns, and the consumption of liquor inside or outside the service stations.
• A strict system of supervision was established to insure the adequate performance of our uniformed agents.

In general, the recommendations that were made were those that, in terms of physical and industrial security, should be made by a company dedicated to security, loss prevention and risk reduction.

We started our job ready to improve the work done by the people who were there before.

Any other routine incidents that occurred have been handled.

It is important to mention that at the time there was a labor strike by the fuel truckers, protesting against the company for not renewing their contracts.

The truckers paralyzed the work on a national level and the company had no way to transport the fuel from the ports and distribute it to all Guatemala. In other words, they froze the income of the principal sites of Chevron Texaco in the country. The situation was dangerous, both on the economic front and in the risk that it represented. ProTechTeam immediately placed the entire work force at the disposition of Chevron Texaco and coordinated the precise actions with the highest levels of the National Police and the Army. The situation could easily have gotten out of control. The Project Manager from ProTechTeam for Chevron Texaco flew to the principal plants and ports to evaluate the exact situation. After getting instructions he coordinated all the precise preventive actions to avoid any tragedy. Throughout the negotiations, all of ProTechTeam remained alert and ready as was expected.

For close to a month the personnel of ProTechTeam were in place as per assignment, in support of the executives and following their movements in order to protect them, until the end of the conflict.

The negotiations between Chevron Texaco and the truckers finally came to an end without major security incidents against the people or the company installations. ProTechTeam’s personnel were at the ready throughout this period.