Page 17 - 2020 Sustainability Report - Gran Tierra Energy

Transporting Crude While Keeping Communities Safe
One of GTE’s major successes in 2020 was shipping crude without interruption or impact on public health. This required
a comprehensive strategy covering the
entire country including the complexities
of crossing the border between Colombia’s southern Putumayo Department and Ecuador.
Special loading procedures eliminated contact between drivers and operations personnel. Drivers, who take weekly COVID-19 tests
and remain in quarantine at selected
hotels with fully implemented COVID-19 protocols, stop only at specially dedicated restaurants to ensure they are isolated from the communities they travel through. Truck cabs are disinfected regularly between handoffs, and checkpoints were established to make sure procedures are followed.
The company’s social, security and logistics teams designed everything needed to implement this action plan and build confidence with driver unions, local communities, national ministries and
border authorities in both countries. While this plan was comprehensive, it would not have been possible to implement without trust from all of GTE’s stakeholders that the company would meet its commitments and be transparent about health and safety concerns.
“Everyone worked together to accomplish this. The truck drivers understood the increased precautions implemented were critical to their business
and everyone’s safety. Community leaders understood our protocols
would keep them safe and that they could apply them to other types of shipments that they were receiving, such as food and beverage products.”
Uriel Torres, Logistics Director
eCOnOMIC DeVeLOPMenT
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