TERMS AND CONDITIONS

South American Expat Oil Specialists

Effective 29 August 2026 • Version 1.0

These Terms describe how we work. They are public rules for professionals, operators, EPCs, and staffing agencies. They are not an employment contract and they do not create employment, partnership, joint venture, or agency of a kind that lets anyone bind us. A signed Representation Form, Independent Professional Terms, Client Agreement, or Assignment Confirmation controls if it conflicts with this page.

1. Who we are and what we do

South American Expat Oil Specialists (“SAEOS,” “Agency,” “we,” “us”) is a freelance industrial representation and introduction business. We connect experienced professionals with operators, engineering-procurement-construction companies (EPCs), vendors, and other staffing firms for oil, gas, energy, mining, power, commissioning, turnaround, operations, instrumentation, procurement, and related industrial work, primarily in South America and, where the fit is right, other regions.

We do three things:

  • Market and represent independent professionals who have authorized us in writing.

  • Introduce those professionals to clients and to other staffing firms that already hold the site contract.

  • On a separately documented paid assignment only, invoice a client and remit the professional’s agreed rate after that client’s funds have been received and have cleared.

We do not guarantee work. Registration with us, a conversation, a résumé on file, or a LinkedIn comment is not an offer of an assignment and is not employment.

2. Who these Terms apply to

These Terms apply to every person or company that uses our website, emails us, sends a résumé, completes a Representation Form, asks us to make an introduction, or holds itself out as working with SAEOS. By doing any of those things you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the service.

3. Status of professionals — not employees

Professionals on our roster are independent professionals. They are not employees, workers, agents, partners, or joint venturers of SAEOS. Nothing on our website, on LinkedIn, in an email, or in a site introduction changes that.

In particular:

  • We do not set the professional’s hours, methods, or daily supervision on site. The end-user client directs the work on its project.

  • We do not withhold employment tax, provide holiday pay, sick pay, overtime premiums as an employer, health insurance, pension, workers’ compensation cover as an employer, or any other employee benefit.

  • The professional is free to accept or refuse any introduction and remains free to work for others.

  • The professional is responsible for his or her own taxes, visas, work permits, professional insurance, safety tickets, tools, and licences, except where a written client agreement says the client will fund a named item.

  • No professional has authority to bind SAEOS, open a bank account in our name, issue an invoice in our name, or hold himself or herself out as our employee.

If a site, camp, immigration desk, or payroll clerk asks “who is your employer?”, the honest answer for a professional on our roster is: the professional is self-employed / contracting, unless that professional has a separate written employment contract with the end-user client or with another licensed staffing firm. That other contract is not ours.

A label does not decide status by itself. We will not run the relationship as employment. We will not issue employee handbooks, performance reviews, or staff ID cards. We will not put a professional on our payroll as staff.

4. No charge to the professional

Work-finding and representation through SAEOS is free to the professional. We do not charge a registration fee, application fee, placement fee, training fee, visa-processing fee, or “equipment deposit” to a professional. We are paid by the client, by another staffing firm, or by a documented markup on a Path B assignment — never by a deduction from a man who has not yet been paid.

If anyone claiming to be SAEOS asks a professional to pay money to be considered, that person is not us. See Section 10.

5. What we do not pay — advances, airfare, training, and the rest

Unless a signed Assignment Confirmation and a signed client contract both say otherwise in writing, SAEOS does not pay and will not reimburse:

  • Cash advances, draws, loans, mobilization floats, “until the first hitch lands,” or any money before client funds have cleared.

  • Airfare, trains, buses, taxis, hotels, camp extras, per diems, meals, or baggage fees.

  • Training courses, HUET, BOSIET, H2S, first aid, trade tickets, medicals, drug tests, or certificate renewals.

  • Visa fees, invitation letters sold as a product, embassy appointments, or immigration consultants.

  • Tools, PPE beyond what the site issues, laptops, phones, or software licences.

  • Family travel, school fees, or relocation of household goods.

A verbal “we’ll sort the ticket” from anyone, including the founder, is not an obligation. Only a signed Assignment Confirmation that names the cost and who books it creates a cost obligation on us — and even then we do not advance the cash unless the client has already put the matching funds in our account.

6. Flights and expenses — the professional books, the client reimburses

Default rule: the professional books and pays his or her own mobilization, including international and domestic flights, and seeks reimbursement from the client or the staffing firm that holds the site contract, under that client’s own expense policy.

That is how an independent professional operates. It is also how we avoid becoming a travel agency and a bank.

Consequences of the default rule:

  • Do not expect SAEOS to put a flight on a personal or company card “as a favour.”

  • Do not expect SAEOS to be reimbursed by the client on your behalf unless we have a written client contract that says we will pass that cost through — and even then we pay you only after the client has paid us.

  • If the client’s policy requires pre-approval, lowest logical fare, or a designated travel desk, that is between the professional and the client.

  • Lost, changed, or unused tickets are the professional’s risk unless the client’s written policy says otherwise.

If a client insists on booking the ticket itself, that is the client’s choice. It does not make the professional our employee and it does not make us the travel payer.

7. When we are the payer — and when we are not

7.1 Roster only

A signed Representation Form and Independent Professional Terms put a professional on the roster. They do not make SAEOS the payer.

7.2 Path A — introduction

We introduce the professional. The client or another staffing firm contracts with the professional (or employs the professional) and pays the professional. We may invoice that firm a finder’s or introduction fee under a separate client paper. We do not pay the professional’s day rate.

7.3 Path B — we invoice and remit

This path exists only after all of the following exist in the file: a signed client contract or purchase order naming us as the vendor; a signed Assignment Confirmation (Section 5 of the Independent Professional Terms) naming rate, currency, site, dates, and one bank account; and client funds for that period received and cleared in our account.

On Path B:

  • We pay only accepted timesheet days or hours.

  • We pay only to the single named account on the Assignment Confirmation.

  • We pay after clearance, not before. Target window: five (5) business days after cleared funds.

  • A late client does not create an advance duty on us.

  • We may set off documented wasted costs (no-show, failed gate, false tickets) that we actually paid and cannot recover.

If any of those papers is missing, we are not the payer. Start-Monday-sign-Friday is not an assignment.

8. Accuracy, tickets, and identity

The professional warrants that the résumé, tickets, passport name, and right-to-work information given to us are true. We may ask for a passport bio-page copy, a face photograph with the passport in frame, and ticket copies with expiry dates before we submit anyone. We do not keep physical passports. We do not send a full passport scan to an unverified address.

False, expired, borrowed, or another person’s tickets are grounds for immediate cancellation of any introduction or assignment and for recovery of wasted costs we actually incurred.

9. Confirm before we submit

We will not submit a professional to a named client or role unless the professional has confirmed that client and that role in writing. This is to stop duplicate submissions through another agency and to stop a professional being marketed to a company he already works for.

The first introduction lives in email. WhatsApp is conversation. Email is the record.

10. Scams, impersonation, and official contact

Recruitment fraud is common in oil and gas. People copy logos, invent job offers, and ask for deposits, app downloads, or passport-plus-bank details.

SAEOS will never:

  • Ask a professional to pay in order to be represented, interviewed, or placed.

  • Ask a professional to download an app as a condition of selection.

  • Ask for payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, Western Union, Zelle, or a personal name that is not on our published contacts.

  • Send a job offer from a free mailbox (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook.com) as our official channel.

Official contact:

If a message uses our name and asks for money, treat it as fraud until you have called one of those numbers. We are not liable for a third party who impersonates us.

Professionals must not use our name, logo, or “I am with oilexpats” to collect deposits from other workers or to open doors at a site we have not introduced them to in writing.

11. No authority; no reliance on informal promises

Only a document signed by Daniel Mark Yachimec (or a later named authorized signatory) binds SAEOS. Comments on LinkedIn, voice notes, and “we’ll figure it out on the hitch” do not create a duty to pay, to fly, or to train anyone.

12. Confidentiality and data

We use résumés and contact details to market the professional to clients and staffing firms the professional has authorized. We do not sell lists. The professional must not publish client rates, site documents, or other professionals’ details obtained through us.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SAEOS is not liable for a client’s refusal to hire, a visa refusal, a delayed flight, a camp condition, a site injury, unpaid client invoices, or lost wages on a hitch we did not document as Path B. Where we are the payer under a signed Assignment Confirmation, our liability to that professional for that hitch is capped at the unpaid accepted timesheet amount for that hitch after set-off. We are not liable for indirect, special, or consequential loss, including lost rotations or lost family costs.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. Courts of Alberta have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may seek urgent relief in any forum to stop misuse of our name or confidential information. These Terms do not override mandatory labour, tax, or immigration rules of a host country. They also do not convert an independent professional into an employee under those rules.

15. Changes

We may update these public Terms. The version date at the top controls. A signed Assignment Confirmation or client contract already in force is not rewritten by a later public update unless both sides agree in writing.

16. Acceptance

Sending a résumé, completing a Representation Form, asking us to make an introduction, or stating that you work with SAEOS is acceptance of these Terms. For a paid Path B hitch, the Assignment Confirmation must still be signed. For a client who wants us to invoice, the client contract must still be signed.

Contact

South American Expat Oil Specialists Daniel Mark Yachimec, Founder Email: daniel@oilexpats.com Canadian line: +1-780-782-7417 Medellín office: +57 312 833 4311 www.oilexpats.com

This document is a statement of commercial terms. It is not legal advice. Have counsel in the relevant country review it before the first Path B hitch in which money sits in our account.