Refinery Site Security: Strategies for Asset Protection

You’ve just arrived at the refinery for your shift as supervisor. You’re walking the facility for a safety check when something catches your eye. You scramble to remedy the leak, but it’s too late. Large amounts of oil have been released into the canal adjacent to your facility, not only crippling the economy of the area dependent on your products, but also putting lives at risk. 

In a refinery, a lot can go wrong at a moment’s notice, and the results can be catastrophic for employees, physical assets, the community, and the economy at large. Due to the volatile nature of these essential facilities, their security must be ensured by efforts more robust than a solid fence, a few mounted cameras, and a roving guard. Refineries require a layered approach to security and disaster prevention that combines physical and technological resources to provide gap-free protection. 

Read on to discover how to utilize mobile surveillance units, smart analytics, and more to prevent devastating breaches at the refinery. 

Explosive Environments: Security Challenges at the Refinery 

Chemical spills, theft, explosions, fires, sabotage, vandalism, employee injury, natural disasters, and terrorism are but some of the potential threats faced by refineries and their security personnel. Insider crimes, cyberattacks, drone-assisted attacks or espionage, or illegal activity from environmental activists may also pose a significant security risk to your facility, staff, and assets.

As the sophistication of refineries and their products—as well as that of the potential threats against them—increases, an archaic approach to security simply won’t cut it anymore. You need modern, adaptable measures that can scale to fit even the most unique, dynamic security threats.

What is Physical Asset Protection?

Refineries are built on a mix of valuable assets. Some are digital, like operational software and sensitive data, but most are physical. These tangible assets include everything from infrastructure and equipment to products and personnel, and they require serious protection. Physical asset security plays a critical role in keeping your people safe, your operations running smoothly, and your company’s reputation intact. When done right, it helps prevent theft, vandalism, and costly disruptions.

Protect Physical Assets at Your Refinery in 9 Steps

1. Assess the Situation 

The first step is to evaluate your facility, its processes, and current security strategy, and to identify areas that need improvement. Conduct a physical security threat assessment to sniff out potential threats, and take note of previous incidents, vulnerabilities in camera coverage, surveillance video quality, limitations in access and supervision, budgetary restrictions, and the ability of current security infrastructure to integrate with new technology. 

2. Create a Physical Security Framework 

Once you’ve conducted a threat assessment and determined the needs of your refinery, it’s time to create a physical security plan to address those needs. 

Walk through each area of your facility—from perimeter to production—and identify where security measures are most needed. Think through each stage of your operations and determine which tools will reduce risk, boost efficiency, and keep your people and assets protected. Your framework might include a mix of emergency protocols, access control systems, surveillance technology, and workplace safety policies.

3. Craft A Layered Defense

A one-dimensional approach to security probably won’t protect your refinery from all potential threats. You can optimize your security efforts by layering different security tools—such as aerial drone surveillance, mobile surveillance units, perimeter fencing, and more—for stronger, more complete protection. 

4. Strengthen the Perimeter

Plenty of hazards lurk at the border of your property, so a hardened physical perimeter is a refinery security essential. Weak perimeters are vulnerable to breaches, bypasses, and unauthorized access. To keep intruders and malicious actors away, consider implementing fencing and barriers, access control technology, powerful lighting, and clear signage.

For an even better layer of defense at your facility’s perimeter, integrate modern technology that helps you to keep an eye on the threats at the door at all times. Surveillance technology can record every inch of your perimeter, audio messages can deter would-be criminals from loitering or causing trouble, and AI-powered security analytics can watch for and notify you of potential threats in real time.

5. Deploy Mobile Surveillance Units 

The key to effective security is flexibility; your refinery is unique, and its needs will evolve. Mobile surveillance units from LVT are state-of-the-art machines equipped with high-resolution cameras, solar power, floodlights, speakers, and a host of other cutting-edge benefits. 

Surveillance alone can have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of your security system, providing real-time coverage and threat deterrence as well as crucial evidence in the event that something goes wrong. 

Mobile surveillance units from LVT offer the same time-tested benefits of classic surveillance technology, along with an array of features that do most of your work for you:

• Remote access, 24/7
• Flexibility—they can be repositioned as needed
• Night vision and low-light capabilities 
• Motion detection 
• Rapid deployment and easy installation 
• Independence from the power grid
• Crime-deterrent speakers and floodlights
• High-resolution footage
• Easy integration with your existing technology 

6. Watch Your Interiors

Though the whole of your property is valuable and needs protecting, the interior of your refinery in particular is home to some of your most sensitive, important, and even dangerous assets. These areas can include hazmat storage spaces, control rooms and power stations, as well as servers and computers with valuable data.

It’s critical that you secure your property’s interior zones with a combination of access control and continuous monitoring. This can be accomplished by implementing access control via key card and biometric authentication, authorizing vehicle entry with license plate recognition, and deploying mobile surveillance units to cover blind spots. 

7. Maintain a Human Presence

Despite all the advancements in security technology, it’s even more effective when paired with human oversight and patrols.

Technology acts as a force multiplier for your security team. While personnel patrol the refinery grounds, mobile surveillance units can monitor other areas and alert them to issues, essentially allowing your team to be in multiple places at once. In addition to allowing security personnel to focus on higher-need areas, surveillance technology can also provide essential evidence and data to assist personnel in handling incidents. 

Even though modern surveillance technology runs with minimal oversight, human supervision is still essential for spotting security gaps and identifying equipment issues.

8. Take to the Skies 

You cannot have a comprehensive layered defense without looking up. Although perhaps a more novel threat, drones and other aerial threats can cause major security issues for your facility. Whether they’re being used to commit sabotage or corporate surveillance, foreign aircraft in your airspace will always spell trouble. 

Incorporating a radar-powered drone detection system—one that integrates with surveillance platforms—can round out your physical security plan and ensure that every threat is detected and handled, even those that come from above.

9. Make Monitoring Easy with Analytics

The final—and, arguably, the most innovative and exciting—layer of a strong refinery security framework is real-time video analysis. Powered by well-trained artificial intelligence, video analytics improve your threat detection and response by analyzing video footage in real time, identifying unusual behavior, and reporting it quickly to your team. All of this happens within a cloud-based, centralized control system, which you can access from anywhere. 

AI analytics and cloud-based storage support continuous monitoring, faster response times, and scalable coverage that grows with your facility’s needs.

LVT + Marathon Petroleum 

LVT has proven to be a valuable partner to refineries and similar facilities. When Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refinery—the largest in California—started experiencing a rash of parking lot crime, break-ins, and employee noncompliance, they enlisted the help of LVT to improve security in an effective, budget-friendly way.

Almost immediately after partnering with LVT, the Los Angeles Refinery for Marathon Petroleum saw parking lot burglaries and materials theft eliminated, facility break-ins deterred, and a massive increase in the use of mandatory PPE by staff members.

 “Right from the start, I mean literally right from the start, we were really happy with the customer service [and] the product that was presented to us,” noted Tim Garcia, the refinery’s security supervisor. 

→ Read the full case study here.

Power Your Security with LVT

Securing your refinery against a host of ever-evolving threats is no simple task, but there’s one tool that can jumpstart your layered security plan and take your physical asset protection to the next level. Our mobile security units allow you to monitor your facilities constantly, respond efficiently to a wide range of security breaches, and protect your assets with both unparalleled vigilance and ease.

Safeguard the critical infrastructure of your refinery, and do so in the most flexible, optimized way, with LiveView Technologies. Schedule your demo today.