Valero supplies Mexican fuel markets with refined products shipped from the US Gulf coast and stored in Mexican import terminals. This page is for the terminal operations, HSE and telecoms people who would need an explosion proof mobile phone for Valero in Mexico, where the classified areas are tank farms, jetties and truck loading racks rather than refinery process units. The IS-04Z1 is designed for Zone 1 and Zone 21 duty and is in certification ahead of the Q4 2026 launch. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · certification programme in progress
A terminal business has a different shape from a refinery. The product arrives by ship, sits in tanks, and leaves by pipeline, rail or road tanker, so the hazardous areas are the marine berth, the tank dykes, the pump and manifold areas and the loading gantries. Press reports describe Valero's Mexican supply chain as built on long-term capacity in import terminals, including the Veracruz port terminal built by IEnova, now Sempra Infraestructura, and capacity at Altamira, with further storage inland towards Puebla and Mexico City. The product is gasoline and diesel, which means Group IIA vapour, a flash-point range that varies with the blend, and static as the hazard that catches out people who think fuel is only dangerous when it is on fire.
Terminals run with far fewer people than refineries. That changes what a handset is for.
A terminal operator may be the only person in a large tank dyke on a night shift. A handset that can raise an alert, share a location and call the control room matters more than any advanced feature, subject to the site's own lone-worker procedure.
Quiet days are interrupted by a tanker arrival that needs a team for sampling, gauging and transfer. The team needs cameras, calls and timestamped notes available at once, in the open and often in the rain.
Loading racks serve a constant stream of tankers, and drivers are contractors rather than employees. A handset helps inspectors record seal numbers, photograph a bonded connection and report a fault without leaving the bay.
Veracruz and Altamira are hot and humid, with storms and salt in the air. IP68 sealing and rugged build are designed for that, and a 4,000 mAh battery for a shift without a charger inside the dyke.
A company with a US culture of procedure still needs its Mexican site to follow NOM-001-SEDE and local approvals. Ask Valero Mexico's procurement, HSE and IT teams what a supplier file must contain; we do not know their process and are not claiming a relationship.
The operator at the berth confirms tank readiness, photographs the hose connection and records start and stop times. All of it goes into the transfer record from one handset, with the position recorded alongside.
A night-shift round checks roof seals, sample points and valves. Findings are logged with a photograph and sent when the operator is back on the network.
The gantry supervisor checks the driver's credentials, photographs seals and calls the control room if a bay needs to be shut down.
Normally Group IIA, with a temperature class set by the product. The IS-04Z1 marking target of II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4 is designed to cover Group IIA, IIB and IIC, subject to certification.
Flowing fuel generates charge, which is why bonding and grounding are checked before loading. A handset must not add an ignition source, and the Ex certificate and handling rules deal with that.
Only the areas classified as hazardous need an Ex phone. The area classification drawing decides, and an Ex device is the one that can be carried across a dyke and back to the office without swapping.
No. SAMS has no supply agreement, pilot or relationship with Valero. The page describes the kind of site the device is designed for.
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 Mexico. 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.
