Securing oil and gas infrastructure

Oil and gas facilities involving petroleum exploration and production, refining, storage and transportation are potential targets for terrorists and some disgruntled employees. This is due to the fact that petroleum products contain a lot of energy and are highly flammable. In the post 9-11 era, the risks from deliberate acts are considered both real and credible. The terrorists may act due to political reasons, religious reasons, nationalist causes or personal reasons. Security risks associated with all activities must be estimated for the adequacy of countermeasures. Threat and vulnerability assessment is conducted to evaluate the risks and appropriate countermeasures are suggested for improvement. It is recognised that all existing safety tools are of help in dealing with this emergency. However they should be modified in light of process security. In this paper, we examine the areas of security concern for oil and gas infrastructure and describe steps one can take to make them more secure. We discuss the various measures that can reduce the target attractiveness, and consequences in case of a successful attack.In the last section of this paper, we have discussed a case study of a refinery to show the application of ideas presented.