OilRig_casestudy

Protecting a Global Workforce During Geopolitical Crisis with Vismo

Case Study: Protecting a Global Workforce During Geopolitical Crisis

Client: Anonymous Multinational Oil & Gas Corporation

Sector: Energy & Extraction

Global Footprint: North America, Middle East, Africa, Latin America

As this article includes security protocols during a current, fast-moving, geopolitical situation all information has been anonymised.

The Scenario

On February 28th, hostilities rapidly escalated into open conflict between the US and Iran. For a leading multinational oil and gas corporation, this wasn't just a distant news story, it was an immediate, critical threat to their operations and people.

With tens of thousands of employees distributed globally, the corporation had a massive footprint in highly volatile regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Mexico. Their workforce consisted of US expatriates living locally with their families, on-site engineers operating in remote extraction zones, and a constant rotation of globally travelling executives.

Because many of these employees lived permanently in these affected countries, mass evacuation was not the immediate goal. Instead, the objective was ensuring operational continuity while guaranteeing that every individual had the latest intelligence, was kept out of newly formed danger zones, and could immediately call for help if needed.

The Challenge

The corporation’s Global Security Operations Centre (GSOC) faced three immediate hurdles:

  1. Visibility in Tough Environments: Tracking staff accurately in remote, low-infrastructure areas.

  2. Data Overload: Filtering a massive influx of geopolitical intelligence and applying it only to the staff at risk.

  3. Dynamic Jurisdiction: Ensuring that travelling staff are monitored by the correct regional security teams without manual administrative delays.

How Vismo Delivered Duty of Care

The corporation leveraged the Vismo Portal to transition from a reactive posture to proactive, intelligence-led security.

  1. Dynamic Security Hand-offs (Automated Group Filtering): One of the corporation’s most used features was Vismo’s dynamic group filtering. When an executive based in the US boarded a flight to Saudi Arabia, they were monitored by the US GSOC. The moment they landed, and their device registered in Saudi Arabia, Vismo automatically transferred their profile into the "In-Country" group. This ensured that any localised alerts, panic signals, or intelligence updates were immediately picked up by the local Saudi security team, rather than being delayed across time zones.

  2. Mass Communications & Welfare Checks: As hostilities broke out, the corporation needed to rapidly verify the safety of its staff. Using Vismo’s Mass Communications tool – Vismo Notify, the central GSOC sent targeted messages to all employees in the Middle East region. Staff could acknowledge their safety with a single tap, allowing security teams to instantly isolate the non-responders and focus their resources on locating them. Vismo also can deliver messages across multiple modalities, so if mobile networks dropped out, they could switch to delivering messages via MS Teams or Satellite communications.

  3. Panic Button & Remote Tracking: For employees in high-risk regions, the Vismo Panic Button provided an essential lifeline. If an on-site engineer encountered a localised threat, a discrete press of the panic button instantly transmitted their coordinates, battery life, and a silent audio feed to the nearest GSOC, triggering an immediate localised response.

  4. Fusing Intelligence with Live Tracking: It wasn’t enough to just know where the conflict was, or where the staff were, the corporation needed to know where the two intersected. By overlaying third-party intelligence data onto Vismo’s global tracking map, security teams could instantly identify who was at risk and push actionable, localised intel directly to their devices.

Additional Oil & Gas Use Cases Powered by Vismo

Beyond the core tracking and communication, the corporation utilised Vismo for specialised industry needs during the crisis:

Capability

How it was Used During the Crisis

Dynamic Geofencing

As the conflict evolved, the GSOC drew instant "No-Go" geofences on the Vismo map around military operations, border zones, and insecure areas. If an engineer breached a geofence both the employee and the GSOC received an immediate critical alert.

Offshore & Transit Monitoring

Staff traversing the Persian Gulf via helicopter or maritime vessel to offshore rigs were tracked continuously. When cellular networks dropped, Vismo integrated with the corporation's satellite devices to maintain an unbroken chain of visibility.

Battery Conservation Mode

For staff instructed to "shelter in place" during localised blackouts, Vismo’s Locate & Protect App was remotely adjusted to report less frequently, preserving critical smartphone battery life while maintaining emergency capabilities.

"It wasn't about pulling everyone out. It was about knowing exactly where our people were, automatically handing them off to the right local security teams, and ensuring they had the intelligence to stay safe while keeping the business running." — VP of Global Security