Corporate Security

We protect our employees and safeguard our facilities in high-risk areas, ensuring respect for human rights

We are present in 29 countries, and we operate in sensitive areas that make the corporate security role essential for our company’s multiple activities.

The strategic importance of energy sector infrastructures exposes them to the risks inherent in terrorism or those arising from military conflicts. They must therefore be protected in collaboration with private security companies and public security forces.

Since December 2013, we have been members of the international Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative (VPSHR), which aims to ensure the security of operations in high-risk areas and conflict zones through work procedures that respect human rights.

Some of the actions we carry out in the framework of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR) are:

• We identify the key stakeholders.
• We establish dialogue sessions with the stakeholders we have previously identified.
• We conduct human rights risk and impact assessments at our operations: All of them cover corporate security and human rights aspects. They identify and assess risks and impacts. Based on these assessments, we select and implement mitigation measures and monitor their effectiveness. These studies are carried out periodically to ensure continuous improvement, and we involve the communities where the Community Relations and Human Rights area collaborates.
• We have operational-level grievance mechanisms open to workers, contractors, and any third party potentially affected by our operations.
• We have selection criteria established for corporate security service providers. We include minimum guidelines for ethical and social behavior in the selection criteria for these providers.
• We include human rights clauses in all contracts with security forces, where we require compliance with all our policies.
• We participate and collaborate with the security representatives of other companies in the sector in joint ventures.
• We train public and private security forces in human rights:
  • All of our employees and employees of our private security companies are trained in human rights.
  • We collaborate with public security forces through specific human rights training in countries such as Colombia and Peru.
  • All of our employees and employees of our private security companies are trained in human rights.
• We have signed memoranda of understanding with public security forces in order to achieve efficient coordination of our operations.

More information in the Annual Report on the Implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights |PDF | 718 KB.