An explosion proof mobile phone for refining in Greece has to work at four quite different sites: HELLENiQ ENERGY's refineries at Aspropyrgos, Elefsina and Thessaloniki, and the Motor Oil Hellas refinery at Agioi Theodoroi on the Corinthian Gulf. This page is for the HSE, instrumentation and turnaround teams who decide what a technician or contractor may carry into the process units. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · ATEX programme in progress
Aspropyrgos and Elefsina sit a few kilometres apart in the Thriasio plain west of Athens. HELLENiQ ENERGY describes Aspropyrgos as a cracking refinery with a fluid catalytic cracking unit, built in 1958 and upgraded in 1986, with a capacity of 148 thousand barrels a day; Elefsina, at 106 thousand, was upgraded in 2012 into a hydrocracking and coking refinery. Thessaloniki, in the north, is a simpler hydroskimming refinery. Motor Oil's refinery at Agioi Theodoroi processes over 200 thousand barrels a day through hydrocracker and catalytic cracking units, with a deep-water dock on the Corinthian Gulf. The conversion units give each site a different gas picture. Hydrocrackers handle hydrogen at pressure, which is gas group IIC; crude and cracking units handle light hydrocarbons and sour streams; coking and coke handling add combustible dust questions that the employer's explosion protection document has to settle area by area. Because the sites are on or near the coast, almost every classified walk ends within sight of the sea.
A refinery is large, hot and full of steel. These are the conditions that decide whether a handset is used or left in the control room.
Hydrocracking puts hydrogen in the process, and hydrogen is group IIC. The IS-04Z1 marking target is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4, certification in progress, so the group is covered; the temperature class remains the figure to check against the area drawing.
Shutdowns put large outside crews onto a hot site. IP68 sealing and rugged build suit a handset that is dropped, rinsed and left on a hot handrail between tasks.
Reactor and column structures mean long stair climbs with nowhere to charge. The 4,000 mAh battery is sized for a full shift of photographs and work order use.
Sour streams need personal gas detectors, which an explosion proof phone does not replace. What it can do is carry the permit and report a reading. Keep the detector on the belt as the plant rules say.
Most refineries limit cameras. An Android Enterprise policy lets your own console switch the 50 MP camera off in some areas, and four-constellation GNSS still records where a defect was found.
Refinery work is run in permit cycles. Routine operation is a round pattern, and planned shutdowns bring contractor crews on to the site at once. Neither group is bound by the other's approvals. We claim no relationship with HELLENiQ ENERGY or Motor Oil Hellas; this is what their teams would ask of any supplier.
A permit controller and a crew at a distillation or hydrocracker unit exchange isolation photographs, line numbers and sign-offs. An enrolled handset keeps them in one system, so a supervisor clears a line without crossing the plant twice.
A board operator in the Thriasio plain sends an outside operator to check a pump seal and a heater. The handset records a reading, a photograph and a location, and reaches the control room from inside the classified boundary.
At a refinery jetty, the shore side works under the plant's classified-area file while the tanker side answers to the ship's flag and class. A handset for jetty loading needs both routes settled before it is issued.
No. HELLENiQ ENERGY and Motor Oil Hellas are separate companies with separate contractor onboarding, permit systems and procurement. Even inside one group, ask for the site's own HSE and telecoms requirements, and for the supplier registration steps that come before a trial.
Not by gas group: a device marked IIC covers hydrogen as well as hydrocarbon vapours. What differs is the zone, the temperature class and the work practice. Send the classification drawing for the unit and we will answer against it.
Dust areas are classified separately. Zone 21 dust is part of the IS-04Z1 design target, but whether a coke handling point is a dust zone is a decision for the employer's explosion protection document. We will state the dust marking when the certificate is issued, not before.
A contractor can bring equipment only if the operator accepts it. In general operators ask for the certificate, the marking string and a management-console policy; some will want the device issued by the site itself. Ask the operator's procurement team.
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 Greece. 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.
