An explosion proof mobile phone for French refining has to cover a short list of large sites: the Normandy platform at Gonfreville, Donges on the Loire, Feyzin on the Rhône, Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon on the Seine, and Fos-sur-Mer and Lavéra on the Mediterranean. This page is for the HSE and maintenance teams at those sites and for the fuel depots and terminals that sit downstream of them. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · ATEX programme in progress
Ownership changes at Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon and Fos-sur-Mer mean site procurement arrangements may be reviewed at sites where classified-area equipment decisions matter.
Crude distillation and catalytic units at the Normandy, Étang de Berre and Rhône corridor refineries are classified Zone 1 gas atmospheres, and Ex ib IIC T4 covers the hydrocarbon gas groups typical of that service.
As an EU member state, France's hazardous-area equipment requirements are governed by the ATEX directives, and the IS-04Z1's certification programme is built around that framework as the primary reference for French operators.
ExxonMobil completed the sale of its French refining and chemicals business to North Atlantic on 28 November 2025, and Rhône Énergies, a Trafigura and Entara consortium, completed its purchase of the Fos-sur-Mer refinery on 1 November 2024, meaning equipment specification and site-access approvals at both are being rebuilt under new management rather than inherited from a long-standing operator.
The Lavéra refinery and petrochemical site on the Étang de Berre gives Petroineos a combined refining and downstream chemical footprint that a pure refiner elsewhere in the country does not carry.
EMM and MDM enrolment supports an operator or its maintenance contractors managing devices consistently as site ownership and specifications change across the sector.
French refining is split across TotalEnergies' remaining sites and two recently changed-hands platforms.
French refining is concentrated on estuaries and the Mediterranean coast, where crude arrives by sea and products leave by pipeline, rail, river and road.
A refinery plans a major turnaround years ahead, stopping units for inspection and repair with large numbers of contractor staff on site for a fixed window. Handsets for contractor crews are issued, restricted and collected as part of that campaign.
Outside a shutdown, operators walk a route past pumps, exchangers and tank valves, crossing the classified boundary constantly. The control room wants readings and photographs as the round proceeds.
Downstream sites such as the Toulouse and Villette-de-Vienne terminals that came with the Fos purchase run with small teams, product movements by road, rail or pipeline, and a driver or inspector arriving by vehicle at the gate.
Where ownership has changed, ask the operator's procurement and HSE teams which supplier approvals carry over and which are being reissued.
During a unit shutdown, a handset lets a supervisor photograph an isolation, confirm a permit and settle a query by voice without leaving the work front.
An operator reports a leaking gland with a photograph and a position fix, and the planner can see which equipment is meant without a walk to the site.
At a loading gate or jetty, the same device supports a call to the control room, a photograph of a seal and a record of the check.
No. The device is pre-launch and certification, including ATEX, is still in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch.
New ownership typically means procurement and site-access relationships are rebuilt, even where the underlying classified-area zoning of the plant itself is unchanged.
ATEX is the primary EU regulatory framework; IECEx serves as useful supporting international technical evidence.
No, North Atlantic and Rhône Énergies are separate companies from TotalEnergies and each runs its own procurement process.
It means an explosive atmosphere is likely to occur in normal operation. In practice most of a tank farm is Zone 2, with Zone 1 near vents and openings. The operator's own explosion protection document says which applies where, and the handset should be checked against that map.
No. A phone is a communication and recording device. A personal gas monitor remains a separate safety requirement wherever hydrogen sulphide may be present.
Practical arrangements, not the plant classification. The zoning of the process units stays as it was, but supplier registration, site access and contract terms may be reviewed, so it is worth asking the operator what applies.
Tell us the site, the zone and gas group, and roughly how many handsets. The SAMS team replies by email with the datasheet and the certification schedule for France. The IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and certification is in progress, so there is no list price yet; indicative pricing is issued in writing against a stated quantity and site.
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.
