Our first group of employees took part in the program designed to bring their families closer to sharing the experience of a full day at work!

The meeting was set for early Saturday morning at 7 am in the Neuquén corporate building. Two hours later, a group of families sat down to enjoy a breakfast marking the beginning of a full day at the Fortín de Piedra field, Tecpetrol's most important facilities.

This visit is an extension of the program called Our children visit us where our employees’ children come to spend a day in the office where their parents work. "The idea was to replicate the experience throughout the field operations and areas and extend it to the whole family," explained Emiliana Ratti, Human Resources Training Specialist, to Tecpetrol Hoy as she discussed the company’s first full family visit.

After breakfast, the attendees were split into smaller groups of eight employees with their families, for safety reasons, to hear the induction talk given by Nicolás Ferrero, from HSE who shared instructions about how to put on and wear the personal protection elements handed out to each person. Now kitted out in overalls, protective eyewear, helmets and boots, each person was given a lanyard with their credentials on it—a free pass to enjoy touring the site.

"The idea is for people’s families to have the experience of exactly what it is that their parents and spouses do at the site, all the way from the moment they leave home and board the minibus, to where they sleep when they’re away," pointed out Anahí Barrera. As a Human Resources Trainee, Anahí helped to organize the program in collaboration with Emiliana Ratti.

Traveling on the same bus that took them across the arid desert of the Neuquén plateau to the facilities, the group crossed part of the 25,000-hectare piece of property to visit the drilling rig. Luis Velasco, Drilling Manager, and Company Man Mauro Sosa, gave a brief description of what well activity means, before shepherding the group out into the field to see things working for real and take photos. Then Luciano Naso, Completion Engineer, and Fernando López, Completion Lead Company Rep, gave a short talk about completion in another area of the site. 

The next stop was at the recreation room for lunch: pizzas and hamburgers, as well as tenderloin with potatoes and mushrooms, left everyone feeling more than satisfied, followed by a try-out of the indoor game facilities, from table football to pool and ping-pong.

After lunch, the tour continued down a dirt road through the parts of the land that are in the process of being reforested, stopped off at the trailers which are being used as offices, and then moved on to visit the site’s crew camp which has its own gym and infirmary. Pablo López, Edgardo Verdugo and Osmar Ventura, control room operators, gave a talk on how the screens operate and what they show.  

One of the most colorful moments, especially for the children, was when they came face to face with the fire engine at the fire station. They were invited to climb into the truck and sound the siren as well as try on the regulation protective wear, before listening carefully to explanations of how all the different fire-fighting tools are used.

Back in the recreation room, Santiago Fanti gave a talk on how the CPF (Central Processing Facility) plant works, explaining the entire process from the first gas molecule—and achieving a great deal of interaction with the audience. Teófilo Vignoles, from General Services, said afterwards that the day had been truly unforgettable. Julián Sccasso Losa and his team, who run Asset Security, hopped into a van to accompany the bus as it drove back across the land.

The screens in the control room, and the sheer scale of everything they saw at the site, certainly left their mark on the visitors, who now have a far more precise idea of what work at Fortín de Piedra is all about.