Security is a critical priority for organisations responsible for chemical plants, petrochemical sites and processing facilities. Today’s complex risk environment is making that responsibility even more challenging, says Andreas Beerbaum, Octave Security.
Disruptions to shipping routes, refining capacity or critical infrastructure can quickly affect feedstock availability and chemical supply chains, with consequences extending into downstream manufacturing. At the same time, chemical facilities must manage physical and cyber risks ranging from trespassing and theft to espionage, sabotage and increasingly sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure.
For operators, resilience depends not simply on adding more security technology, but on gaining a clearer understanding of what is happening across the facility and being able to act quickly when something is wrong.
Regulating for resilience
Governments and regulators are placing greater emphasis on the resilience of critical infrastructure, including the chemical sector.
In the United States, the expiration of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) programme in July 2023 has left the industry without its previous federal framework. In Europe, the Critical Entities Resilience (CER) Directive is placing greater emphasis on the ability of essential services and infrastructure to withstand and recover from disruption.
For chemical operators, these issues extend across petrochemical refineries, processing plants, bulk storage facilities, pipelines and specialty chemical sites. While specific threats vary by location and facility, the underlying challenge is consistent: identifying potential problems early and giving operators the information they need to make informed decisions.
Recent incidents illustrate why resilience remains so important. Reported attacks on chemical facilities, including Metafrax Chemicals in Russia’s Perm Krai and the Krasnozavodsk chemical plant, as well as the shelling of the Sumykhimprom chemical fertiliser plant in Ukraine in 2022, demonstrate the potential physical and economic consequences when hazardous-material infrastructure is disrupted.
Connecting protection and detection
Most chemical facilities already have extensive technology in place. Large petrochemical complexes may use monitored video, thermal cameras, hazardous-area sensors, access control and perimeter intrusion detection. Remote storage facilities and pipeline transfer stations may have fewer systems, although technologies such as 3D LiDAR are expanding detection capabilities.
The bigger challenge is often bringing those systems together.
Industrial automation, process monitoring and physical security have traditionally operated in separate environments. The result can be fragmented information, with operators moving between systems to understand whether a process anomaly, thermal event or perimeter alarm represents an isolated incident or part of a larger problem.
Connecting SCADA and process-monitoring data with physical security systems can provide a more complete view. Consider a sudden variation in pressure or temperature within a processing unit. On its own, it might indicate a mechanical issue. If that event occurs at the same time as an access-control anomaly or perimeter intrusion near the affected area, however, the combined information could suggest a more significant security event.
The value comes from correlation. Rather than asking operators to interpret multiple alarms independently, an integrated operational environment can bring relevant information together so they can see what is happening, verify the event and determine the appropriate response.
A Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) platform, for example, can connect alerts from gas sensors, thermal imaging, perimeter detection, video and other systems. When an incident occurs, operators can be presented with associated information and predefined workflows, helping them respond consistently and in accordance with site procedures. That can reduce the time between detection, understanding and action.
From more data to better decisions
Chemical facilities do not necessarily need more alarms. They need better context around the alarms they already receive. Connecting operational and security systems can help turn individual data points into actionable information, giving control-room personnel a more complete picture of an unfolding event. It can also help organisations make better use of existing technology investments rather than continually adding standalone systems.
Ultimately, resilience depends on people having the right information at the right time.
For chemical and petrochemical operators, integrating physical security with operational technology can strengthen situational awareness, support regulatory compliance and help protect critical production. More importantly, it can give the people responsible for complex facilities the clarity they need to make faster, better-informed decisions when every second counts.
