How to Secure the Perimeter of Refineries
Oil and gas refineries are oftentimes targeted by criminals, vandals and others engaged in industrial espionage. These energy juggernauts power the global economy, and maintaining safe and secure operations is a priority. The value of an effective security system is one that can identify security breaches before they infiltrate operations. Once the perimeter has been breached, it may be too late. For this reason, thermal imaging systems have gained in popularity.
These systems are capable of operating in complete darkness, raging storms, and near-zero visibility conditions. Popular choices include products like Sii AT, Accuracii ML and Accuracii XRU. The tech-specs of these devices rely on highly sensitive uncooled sensors that provide great detection performance while maintaining the cost of ownership low. They are expressly designed for safeguarding perimeters of oil and gas facilities. The fact that they have extremely high resolution capabilities over the medium or long-range spectrum is an added benefit.
What types of security breaches are possible on the perimeters of oil rigs?
There are multiple potential security risks that can impact operations on an oil or gas rig. These include swimmers, small boats and ships in the area. A security system that protects the perimeter of an oil rig needs to be able to track and identify various targets before they breach the perimeter. Additionally, security measures must be in place to ensure that there is close monitoring of all boat activity in the vicinity of the oil rig, and its surroundings. The benefit of utilizing long-range high-tech devices for tracking various targets is that early detection is possible. Several minutes’ lead time can be gained by alerting security personnel to potential threats before they breach the perimeter of the oil rig.
Given that oil and gas rigs are highly complex installations, they are often spread out over a vast area. With long-range thermal cameras, it entirely possible to monitor rigs, logistics and installations in the area. Panoramic scanning and automatic detection of intruders is possible. Since these devices scan the perimeter non-stop, there is no gap in surveillance. Any criminal threats will be directed to the respective security and management personnel instantly. Oil and gas rigs simply cannot afford to have their perimeters breached by arsonists, saboteurs or criminals. All the top oil and gas companies rightly live by the mantra: Safety first!