Whitegate refinery sits on the east side of Cork Harbour and is the only oil refinery in Ireland. This page is for the HSE, instrumentation and telecoms people who decide what may be carried into its process units, and it explains where an explosion proof mobile phone for Irving Oil in Ireland would earn its place. The SAMS IS-04Z1 is designed for Zone 1 and Zone 21 and is being certified ahead of its Q4 2026 launch. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · certification programme in progress
Whitegate was built in 1959 and processes crude into petrol, diesel, kerosene and heating fuels. Public sources put its throughput at up to 75,000 barrels a day, and Irving Oil acquired it from Phillips 66 in 2016. The refinery is on the Health and Safety Authority's list of upper tier COMAH establishments, which means the site already operates under the highest major-accident regime in Ireland and keeps a hazardous area classification that is audited, not just drawn. The classified ground is the process units, the tank farm, the pipework between them and the jetty on the harbour side. Hydrocarbon vapour is the main concern, with hydrogen-bearing streams wherever the process uses them, so the gas group in the area classification drawings is the first thing an engineer will check against any handset.
Classification decides whether a phone may be carried into the plant. After that, a coastal site with a five-yearly shutdown cycle decides how it is actually used. These are the conditions that matter most at Whitegate.
Whitegate stands on the open side of the harbour mouth. Sea spray, driving rain and constant wind are routine on the jetty and tank farm, which is where IP68 sealing earns its keep. The ATEX marking target is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4, and the T4 figure is the one the process engineer compares with the lowest auto-ignition temperature in the area.
Public notices show the last full refinery turnaround ran from October into November 2024, under a five-yearly programme, with the jetty, road loading, utilities and waste water plant kept running throughout. At the 2016 sale the site was described as having about 160 permanent staff and more than 130 contractors; a turnaround adds many more. Temporary crews are exactly where an uncontrolled personal phone enters the plant.
A round at a refinery covers tank farm, pumps and units spread over a large footprint, with no charging point inside the classified boundary. The 4,000 mAh battery is specified for a full shift with the camera and a work order application running, so the phone does not need a trip back to the control room.
Hot-work and inspection permits need evidence: the flange before and after, the gauge reading, the tag number. A 50 MP camera produces a legible image, and MDM policy lets the site disable the camera outside defined areas if its photography rules require that.
An operator walking the tank farm records gauge readings, reports a weeping gland with a photograph and calls the shift supervisor, all from one handset. It replaces the radio, the camera and the paper round sheet that a shift signs out.
During a turnaround, contractor supervisors need the permit, the isolation list and the daily progress report in hand while standing in a classified area. An enrolled handset can carry all three and be wiped when the crew demobilises.
Whoever supervises a transfer needs to speak to the control room, log the time and photograph a hose connection. A handset designed for Zone 1 and sealed to IP68 suits a wet berth far better than a borrowed consumer phone in a pouch.
We cannot speak for Irving Oil's internal rules, and we have no relationship with the company. As with any upper tier site, expect the explosion protection document and the area classification to decide what is permitted, and expect the procurement and HSE teams to ask for the certificate, the marking, the manual and a configuration they can control. Ask them directly what their equipment approval route is.
The design target is gas group IIC, which includes hydrogen, and the marking being pursued is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4. Whether a particular unit is Zone 1 or Zone 2, and which gas group the classification drawing assigns, is for the site to confirm against its own documents. Certification is in progress, and no unit goes into a classified area before the certificate covering it exists.
Android Enterprise and existing MDM consoles allow separate profiles, so a contractor build can carry only the permit, directory and reporting applications and be wiped on completion. The IS-04Z1 is designed to be managed from consoles the site already uses, which keeps the control with Irving Oil's IT team rather than with a supplier.
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 Ireland. 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.
