An oilfield services company’s activities at its operations base in Ecuador have expanded in recent years, generating increasing volumes of aqueous fluid mixed with materials such as grease, oil, hydrocarbons and suspended solids. This aqueous fluid was being treated off-site, incurring increasing transport and treatment requirements. An analysis was performed to determine the potential benefits and operational requirements of a dedicated on-site industrial water treatment plant. Objectives included reducing the need for transport services, effectively managing maintenance of grease traps, reducing treatment costs, and meeting Ecuadorian and provincial regulatory requirements. A new water treatment plant was built, providing a process that comprised the separation of fats and oils, followed by dissolved air flotation (DAF), then filtering through an activated carbon filter and a nutshell and rice filter. As a result of the new treatment plant, overall expenditure for industrial water treatment at the base decreased significantly. In 2010, 581,000 liters of industrial water required transporting for treatment off-site. In 2012, despite an increase in the level of field operations, only 145,000 liters of industrial water effluent required transporting for further treatment: a 75% reduction. The plant has the ability to treat up to one cubic meter per hour, but is currently working at 50% of its capacity at 5,500 liters per working day. This gives sustainability to the project, as the plant has capacity to accommodate increases in industrial water treatment requirements at the base and/or support water treatment for some of the company’s other bases in the area. The water treatment operations comply with the Ecuadorian legislation and the bylaws where the operations are located, as well as the company’s own stringent standards. The treatment process is helping to maintain the integrity of natural water resources because no industrial water is discharged. In addition, treated water is being reused for processes such as washing tools, reducing overall resource usage.

Road traffic incidents are ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) among the top 10 causes of fatalities worldwide. According to reports from the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP), driving-related incidents continue to be the single largest cause of fatalities in the oil and gas industry. With an increase in driving-related activities in its operations in Ecuador, an oilfield services company reinforced its approach for driving training in that country by developing a "Learning by Impact" component. Based on the principle that people learn by repetition and impact, the approach represents a change of focus compared to the previous training, which was mostly theoretical. The objective of the "Learning by Impact" initiative was to encourage safe driving behavior combined with good driving skills training in order to further improve driving safety performance. The training program implements real-life situations such as rollover, frontal crash, seatbelt and motorcycle convincer simulator devices, reaction stick (using a cell phone), vehicle pre-inspection and role-plays. The training is consistent with IOGP 365 guidelines for driver safety improvement. Equipment was custom designed and built to provide simulators of vehicle accident situations. These simulators are portable, enabling the training program to be easily moved to multiple locations in the country wherever driver training is required. This paper describes how the program was developed and implemented, and how the approach, with its focus on practical experience of simulated real-life situations, is considered to have been successful in increasing drivers' awareness of their behavior and its potential impact of driving incidents.